Getting to grips with corporate and PR ethics
The word ethics derives from the Greek word ethos, which means character. Ethics governs how we ought to behave. To behave as one ought is to behave ethically. Yet modern PR professionals rarely possess a basic grasp of ethical theory or the moral philosophical reasoning that underpins it.
Psychobabble will not make PR credible
The relevance of neuroscience to public relations is premised on a materialist understanding. It maintains human society is pre-programmed (or re-programmable) based on mind- and fuzzy cultural-genes or firing neurons; in other words evolutionary psychology. It is comparable to phrenology.
Voodoo PR versus "Voodoo Academia"
My beef is not with what Mr. Edelman wants to achieve. I rebel, as do most people who are moderately sceptical of corporate humbug, to his pandering to the more infantile elements; the audience who cannot (supposedly) be told the truth because it would destroy their illusions.
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.
Essay: Sustainability and WBCSD's myopic Vision 2050
The World Business Council for Sustainable Development's Vision 2050 claims that over the next forty years, corporate environmental efficiency must become a competitive advantage across all industries and regions of the world. How to interrogate this stuff? Sceptically, I suggest.
Why Chaos Theory in PR is hogwash
We need to interrogate the usage, misuse and abuse of science by public relations academics; not least because they mostly do so in association with some of our leading practitioners advising clients. It is necessary, therefore, to raise the profile of this debate about science in wider circles.
In defence of the right to PR representation
The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) believes that every person or organisation has the right to have its voice heard in the global marketplace of ideas. But adds PR firms shouldn't work for dictatorships. There goes China where the state owns most things! The PRSA can't have it both ways.
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.
"Deadly Spin" is mere spin
What comes across from Wendell Potter's book is his distaste for his former employers' agenda. That exposes something that has long troubled me; too many PRs share the media's and the protesters' assumptions and criticisms of society.
Coca-Cola's sponsorship is all about them
Unless Coca-Cola was driven by cynicism, I can't see why a "families values" brand should even contemplate selecting Wayne Rooney as the embodiment of its reputation.
Google comes of age in China
Trust in Google was built on the premise of an ambiguous "Do No Evil" slogan and on the utopian notion of enabling unhindered free flow of data and information across the web. Yet Google has always been a pragmatic, profit-driven firm. China exposes the limits of its flimsy ground standing.
Wither stakeholder doctrine?
Here's a muse on how the stakeholder doctrine failed both politics and business and how it may not survive the challenge from the BRIC countries where there's a bit more realism about life.
