Public Relations: A Dark Art

By Drew Kirtley

As someone who has wanted to be in the business for years now, I have always sort of embraced the bad reputation that PR practitioners receive from the very public to whom they are trying to, well... relate. Not to say that I try and make a bad reputation for myself, but just that people don't fully understand what the business is about. I have heard people call PR practitioners anything from manipulators to airheads. The most famous nickname being, of course, "spin doctors." Personally if anyone ever feels the need to refer to me as any kind of "doctor" I won't object.

The bad reputation that haunts PR practitioners has become so popular in our society, there have been numerous projects in television and film that are based on the issue. One of the very first instances in which PR was shown in a controversial manner was the popular television sitcom, Spin City. The series starred Michael J. Fox and revolved around a fictional government in New York City. It deals with the character's ability to deal with the PR of the business but not his own life.

Another very popular example is the 2006 film Thank You For Smoking based on the 1994 Christopher Buckley novel of the same name. It is more of a comedy that stars Aaron Eckhart as a spokesman for a tobacco company. Again, PR is shown in a negative light.

A recent film, however did show public relations in a positive manner. The 2008 summer blockbuster, Hancock, stars Will Smith as a super hero with a bad reputation and a drinking problem. Jason Bateman plays a PR representative who tries to give Hancock a more positive image.

But no matter how many movies or television sitcoms are made, PR has a long way to go before it is viewed as a completely positive business by the public as a whole. There are so many positives to it that go over-looked and it is a shame that there are so many people doing good and they are viewed in a negative light. But, let's face it. The world will always need PR (more and more these days) so it has plenty of time to clean up its own image.