Flacks Behaving Badly

Over the years, I’ve met lawyers, mechanics and politicians whom I consider decent and professional. And yet I also know my fair share of lawyer, mechanic and politician jokes.

I wonder sometimes why there aren’t PR professional (flack) jokes. Given the bad behavior and unprofessional conduct of some practitioners, it isn’t hard to see why our profession occasionally elicits disdain from the general public.

Here are just a few recent examples of bad PR practice.

• A communications professional rips the microphone out of a reporter’s hand and physically blocks him from following the CEO of Honeywell to ask him questions.
• An associate at a lobbying firm employed by Wal-Mart poses as a reporter at a press conference and interviews opposition members (she was subsequently fired).
• A local metro editor tweets that he received a press release touting a dog poop removal service as “the perfect Fathers Day gift.”

While these are separate and isolated incidents, enough of them get noticed that it’s easy for some people to paint PR pros with a broad, unflattering brush.

So how do we counter this misperception? Continue to conduct ourselves professionally and ethically. Follow the PRSA Code of Ethics. Tout our real and honest successes in helping clients meet their objectives. Turn down requests to engage in shady practices. And continue to do pro bono work on behalf of nonprofits working for a better world.

If you do know any good PR jokes, feel free to send them my way.