How to promote the PR profession - not

PRISA (www.prisa.co.za) is the organisation that I don't belong to, and I recently received confirmation about why I didn't bother to join them, in the first place. And before you accuse me of not wanting to get involved, understand that normally I'm the first person in the queue to offer assistance and help where it's needed.

A lost cause

In this instance, though, I think it's a lost cause.

An association should be on the cutting edge of its industry; it should be thought-leading and it should be out there correcting misconceptions - not promoting and furthering them.

A case in point: I received a first call for delegates to attend the PRISA fourth annual PR conference, with this opening line: "...can you please open the attachment for further information, kindly reply your decision thank you have a great day..."

While I'm the last person to profess to be fault-free when it comes to grammar and language usage, my toes curled. I wondered who does the PR for PRISA? Really. If we want to take our profession to the next level and take our rightful place in boardrooms, we need to stop this BS.

What were they thinking?

And to add insult to injury, I really loved the liberal use of colour, the different fonts and the variety of font sizes in the emailer I received. I counted eight colours and five different fonts. What were they thinking? This is not the way to improve the tarnished image that our profession has in the minds of businesses in South Africa, or in the eyes of the media and people looking to enter the profession.

And then the cherry on the top of this particular koek, the real clincher that had me chomping at the bit to become a delegate, was this line: "...In the event of a crisis, it is the PR professional that is called upon to turn things in favour of the business..."

Anyone who knows anything about PR, crisis communications and interaction with the media and other stakeholders knows that it's about establishing contact with the media, providing the facts and resolving the issue. It's most certainly not about spin, spin-doctoring or attempting to turn things in favour of the business.

Left wondering

I'm left wondering how I'm supposed to be proud of the profession I have chosen, when I'm subjected to this naive and unprofessional approach to communications and public relations?