You like us! You really like us! (Sort of…)
By Linda Forrest
Close to three years ago now (where does the time go?!?!?), we blogged about PR’s bad rap.
According to ADWEEK, results of a recent Gallup poll suggest that our stock has increased of late (at least in the eyes of those questioned.) An inherent flaw in the poll is that it lumps together advertising and PR, the differences between which warrant their own blog post, if not an entire blog altogether. But, despite that major criticism of the industry categorization, the numbers still indicate that our industry isn’t as hated as it has been in the past.
Yay?
One-third of respondents to the survey voiced a positive opinion of the advertising-PR industry. This over and above various industries whose reputations are dismal, according to the poll – oil and gas (thanks, BP!), banking (thank you, mortgage crisis!) and the airlines (where someone thinks this is a good idea.)
One commenter, Sven, clearly doesn’t have a good opinion of us, however: “The fact these dark witches try and spin the banking, airline, pharmaceutical and oil companies is worse than being a politician.”
This raises an interesting point: aren’t we PR practitioners in part responsible for how the public perceives these industries? Is their bad reputation our failing? Or is their bad behaviour or shoddy customer service their own business and PR has little to nothing to do with it?
