Lonmin's PR credibility gap
I want to address Lonmin's politically correct corporate website, which reads as if it were promoting a mine somewhere in Western Europe rather than in troubled South Africa. And I want to issue a warning against the dangers of moral grandstanding that is all too common in South Africa.
New moral agenda for PR: updated essay
In the late 20th century PR had to manage an increasing number of controversial issues. Firms were invited – forcefully – to address their reputations the way they once addressed profits. This essay interrogates the response of leading academics and examines the historical roots of the problem.
PR should help leaders lead, not listen
My profession seems to be obsessing on stakeholder relationship management. I see why. When the angry mob is howling at the gates (normally not so much a mob as a media and Twitter scrum), it seems sensible to pretend that crowds have wisdom. Like politicians, media and most bosses in the West, publ
PR is more about messages than relationships
Of course PR is about building relationships. Even more than most, our business is diplomacy and even schmoozing and wooing.
New muse on social media in Egypt
Now Mr Mubarak has fled Cairo the significance of social media in Egypt should become plainer to see. Its work
How PR sells firms and trust short
This essay published in A Sorry State: Self-denigration in British Culture, edited by Peter Whittle with a foreword by the historian Michael Burleigh. It exposes how the mainstream PR industry largely hates its clients and the society we live in.
Muse on Egypt and SM
The story of the murdered blogger Khalid Said has been an inspiration for protest in Egypt in recent weeks. But
It's the politics, stupid!
Outside of celebrity gossip, sport reports and puff pieces, most news dissemination around the world is fundamentally political.
Newspapers are
Musing on PR, privacy & confidence - part 2
What are we PRs to do with the troublesome issue of privacy? We certainly have an interest in leading this
Musing on PR, privacy and confidence - part 1
Google's Eric Schmidt says we should be able to reinvent our identity at will. That's daft.
Stockholm Accords are useless for PR's future
The last in my trilogy on the Stockholm Accords is dedicated to rebutting the authoritarian notion that public relations professionals
Stockholm Accords interrogated – part 2
Here's the second in my trilogy on the Stockholm Accords. This one deals with the Accords themselves, following
