Comment:  Is the PR Industry a casualty of the credit crisis? If so, it's time for a rethink. The last decade has not only been a period where credit standards have arguably been a little loose, leading to the current financial issues, it’s also been a decade, especially in Australia, where business and life have been good. As a consequence everyone’s been bullish. Many companies have had a good yarn to tell. Most things have seemed pretty rosy in the corporate garden and corporates wanted to talk themselves up. At the same time the media had perhaps not been as questioning as it could have been, accepting much of the good news on face value. With all this money and good news about, PR has largely been seen in a ‘cheerleader’ role.  More often than not the PR task has been to beat the competitor - show that your results are better, that your product or service is superior, or that your founder or CEO is wealthier as a result of the success the organisation is experiencing. And of course, it’s not hard work writing and pitching good-news stories! However, the bubble has burst. Many companies, and some of their executives, have been exposed.  Their organisations weren’t as successful as had been portrayed… at least their foundations weren’t. Furthermore their executives weren’t actually as rich as they wanted us to believe, once their liabilities had been taken into account. Unfortunately, like much of the rest of Australia, a large proportion of this good news was simply on the credit card (or margin loan!). Companies already realise they are now in a different era. What worked previously may not continue to.  The criteria the marketplace (and the media) is applying to judge everything an organisation says and does is also different.  Yes, the media is on the ball again! There are implications for PR which for most organisations is now intertwined at C level.  It’s all about building and maintaining corporate and personal credibility for the organisation and those who run it. PR people play a large role in both determining and delivering messages on behalf of the company and senior executives. They are often the public face of an organisation and can have a big influence in the ‘court of public opinion’. How many PR people can now, with the benefit of hindsight, look back and cringe at things they did, said and promoted on behalf of an organisation?  To use the over-worn phrase can they put their hand on their heart and say that the ‘spin’ they put out was in reality well founded.  Did they question what they were asked to say and do enough - or did they just get carried along on the wave of enthusiasm? Arguably, those who did question the details, tempered the desire for spin and engaged more meaningfully with media, will probably find a more forgiving, or at least reasonable, media this time around. PR is not about playing a cheerleader role. PR is about building and maintaining credibility. It’s about adding to the Bank of Reputation  in good times, so there is some credibility to draw down from when times get tough.  It’s about moderating the claims of over enthusiastic marketers and smart and clever financiers. It’s about thinking about the impact tomorrow- not just today; and planning for what to do we do if there’s a glitch (think British Airways and Terminal 5). It’s also about asking questions - and getting satisfactory answers before going public. At this time of reflection perhaps its time for internal PR people to build in a little protection for the future.  Just as Director’s protect themselves by Director and Officer liability insurance, all senior PR and corporate communications specialists should checking to see whether they are appropriately indemnified by those organisations they work for, and speak on behalf of. We’ve written before about the company spokesperson role and the risks and liabilities that such positions are exposed to.  During the investigation into James Hardie the actions of its Directors and Officers were investigated and the PR role apparently became very close to facing specific Court action. More recently PR has been a casualty of the Australian Wheat Board investigation, and a similar situation has arisen with the Victorian Police (although for different reasons). In this issue of PR Influences we write about greenwashing. It’s arguably a legacy of the laissez-faire times we have been through. “Being seen to be green is good so how can we get on the bandwagon? Never mind if we haven’t thought it all through. We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it”, is too often the attitude and approach. Hopefully communicators, like those who run organisations, will learn from the wake-up call that the credit crisis has led to. Grant Common Do you have an opinion about this topic? We would love to hear from you! please join us on the PR Influences Facebook group.

'PR Influences' is a free information resource from Network Communications (Australia) Pty Ltd to show how PR can be used by organisations. It features articles, trends, insights, comments and tips relating to all disciplines with communication - corporate, consumer industrial, B2B and associations. The site's newsletter is produced approximately five times per year with the latest issue always available here. The site's other resources are added to on a continual basis. Editor: Grant Common