When I was a caterpillar in the PR profession, I used to enjoy learning everything about the media. Making media contacts was one of my favorite roles. I engrossed in it to the extent that I shifted my profile entirely to media relations.

However, one thing that has confused me is pampering the media unnecessarily. I was stunned seeing my colleagues giving endless gifts to the media. It was a shock as in my professional course of Advertisement and PR I have been taught about professionalism. But I could not see any professionalism in taking gifts for attending events or for doing stories.

During my professional traveling so far for events, I have seen a culture that many times the media asks for gifts openly. They ask bluntly about what gift you are giving. It was really shocking when some of them asked straightforwardly for cash in an envelope to attend an event.

It’s not only the PR agency that encourages this culture but somewhere the clients are also responsible for the same. One of the biggest players in automobile industry thinks that if they do not give gifts to media, the event will be considered incomplete. They also think that the media will not write their stories without gifts irrespective of the fact how important the news they are sharing is.

Last year we had a big event in Rajasthan. One night before the event, a government minister died in a road accident. I started getting calls from the media till late night saying that they would not be able to attend the event as a minister has died and they will be busy in that. They asked me what we are giving as gifts. I was left with no option but to tell them and next day I found all media persons at the event. I believe gifts were more important than the death of the minister.

This seems more of buying the media rather than indulging in media relations. Or in other words, we can say this is the another definition of MEDIA BUYING in PR industry.

Later on I came to know that this is not the case in tier two cities alone, in metros, the scene is worst. Even in the capital, so many journalists from reputed media houses attend events just for gifts. Sometimes journalists give phone calls and ask for gifts without attending the event. And of course even after this, the story is not assured. But if the editor will eliminate the story, the journalist will never say that he or she has taken a gift from PR agency so please don’t stop the story. There are journalists who create issues for not getting the gifts. They make excuses for not attending the events from next time and also try their best to stop the stories.

It is a regular practice that has been carried by PR, journalists, and clients. But it creates a problem for small organizations who can’t afford expensive gifts for the media. We have noticed few journalists who try to stop stories of PR agencies that refuse to give gifts.

Another issue I believe which doesn’t make any sense is the pick ‘n’ drop for media. There is no point providing such facilities to media. In exceptional cases like providing drop back facility to female journalists in the night or taking media out for a day is quite acceptable. But calling a cab at your place four to five hours before the event and using the same for the rest of the day is really unethical. It really doesn’t make a sense to provide a cab to such a place which is just half kilometer away from the venue of the event. Still many media persons ask for pick ‘n’ drop for these small distances, despite the fact they get paid from their companies for traveling officially. They say it openly if we want us to attend an event, you have to provide the pick ‘n’ drop. PR agencies need to spare one executive to coordinate the cabs for these special guest of our. Sometime it feels like doing transportation business rather than real PR.

There are also some people who attend events without being invited for it and they openly ask for gifts too. They belong to such media houses, which are not relevant either for PR agencies or for the clients. Some people do not belong to any media houses but still claim to be journalists and ask for gifts. Few retired journalists are sometimes also being noticed attending events for their share. Sometimes they start misbehaving or threatening PR persons and try to show them the MEDIA POWER.

Sometimes they ask for two gifts at one go. Helping media in getting a discount in a clients’ product is acceptable but giving gifts, cabs, and other facilities to them to get the stories done is extremely unethical.

Needless to say that they have stronger network than any other in this industry. They update themselves with all the events everyday with the exact timings and venue. Sometimes clients ask us to find out the events happening on a particular date and we find it difficult to find all the relevant details. I must say it is an indirect learning for all of us.

I have noticed Mumbai as the only place where these practices are not followed. In the rest of the country the meaning of professionalism goes for a toss. I don’t know who is to be blamed for this. PR agencies or Clients? Obviously we cannot blame the media as we only support these practices for one or the other reason. I feel this process will continue like this and media will keep on taking the advantage of it. But still I want to stop this crap. Don’t know how.

Recently I picked up a book called “Why So Stupid?” by Edward De Bono and this post is inspired by it. In fact, I wanted to write about why we stopped thinking about PR in our business but ended up writing something else courtesy a copy of a magazine landing on my desk.

Well, to be very honest I haven’t finished reading the book yet, but it seems that it would be fascinating to read through it. In the first few pages only, I disovered many things. One quote fetched my attention beyond doubt and I would like to share it with you. It helped me to put headline for today’s post as well. It reads and I write, “You can analyze the past but you have to design the future.”

Now coming back to the recently published report about “The Future of Public Relations” in one of the marketing magazines, I have few observations which I want to express for you lovely friends. While it did mention about the future of PR but the irony was that I haven’t seen any of the future leaders of PR talking about the future. I saw the same old faces trying to analyze the past without realising the present situation in many of their businesses or agencies and pretended to be designers of the future. I am sure many of you guys must have had a good laugh reading through it and some of their views must have been swallowed by many of us with a pinch of salt, some pepper and cold water.

The thinking in the industry has been stale and stopped somewhere. I was discussing the same with my wife and she said that it is happening probabbly because in earlier days leaders were born and born leaders are great thinkers, but today leaders are made, and they expect some reference as they are made like that. I think she has a point here. Most of our leaders are coming from ‘recoginition’ background and they always need a reference point to begin. The recongnition here is the worldview they have been living with since 70s and trying to impose the same upon their people. Do you have a high attrition rate - stop blaming the new generation, please. I have had the luck of meeting many of the agency heads and since I have to be politically correct here on this blog and have to remain in the industry where I belong to, I have to say a big lie that almost all of them have inspired me. (sigh!!) But, I am sure almost everyone who is reading my blog today knows ‘who is who?’ in the business and I do not have to give you any recognition or refernece point to think outside the box to arrive at any conclusion. I am sure you are smarter than me.

By the way, who am I to pass on any judgment on the industry or some of our so called leaders. After all, some of them have created the industry we are all working in now. They are the ones who are driving growth of their agencies and dipping the fees. They are the ones how are corrupting the business eco system and doing things which are not required in the name of building and maintaining relationships. They are the ones who are not willing to let their people grwo and try harder to make them feel inferior. After all, they are the ones who are drving the industry, where the accelerator is on a left hand side and brake is faulty with a gear lever lost somewhere on the way.

Why am I behaving so stupid and writing such a post? May be because I am like that only. I care for each one of us. I love what I do and it really hurts when I see my love being treated the way it is being now by many of them. SOS! Please respond, before its too late.

Take care friends and wake up! Jaago re… Jaago re… Jaago re…

PS: I wrote this heartfelt post with complete honesty and with an intention to hurt few of them in the process. If you are one of them and felt hurt, please accept my apologies and look into the mirror. Do you see the horns emerging from sides… ??!!!???

The rapid expansion in the media space has done many good things for the nation. It has provided choice in beats across entertainment, movies, news and education that earlier was simply not ever thought of or envisioned. The proliferation has brought about waves of soaps, contests and now with the first IPL season shaking India, it has brought a gaggle of new anchors anxious to make their mark.

In a landscape dotted by hungry journalists, anchors, show producer, sometimes this breed, crosses the line of prudence and fair practice in the quest for exclusives, scoops and the most dramatic of them all; stings! In times of deadline overload and a lack of any tangible research, editorial balance becomes the first casualty to TRPs, popularity polls and advertising revenue.

How many times have you had a trick e-mail or a innocuous phone call translate into a bombshell in the press the next day, or even the same day in these times of broadcast and online media explosion? If you are out there working the space, then I am sure you do this more than you’d like to and while we all employ our own ways and means to deal with the scourge, maybe the time is right for a discussion. Keeping quiet is not an option so here are a few PR plays I’ve seen practiced:

• No comment - This is the most basic defense of the scared communicator or resident PR punter in the establishment. It creates a doubt in the mind of the viewer or reader about the authenticity or veracity of the story but has the potential of making front page all the same or the lead story in the dozen or so television channels out there, business, news, and combinations thereof.
• We do not speculate on market speculation - This or another variation of the same featuring words like ‘policy’ are yet another wet blanket in terms of media credibility, will they stop your brand image from get a contentious tag or even a black eye is arguable.
• Denial - This is the last reprieve of either the aggrieved or the very stupid, especially if its a lie. It will give a pause to the editor or the journalist, who will question their gut, chances of going to print or being aired, fifty per cent.
• Half Agreement, half denial - This Molotov Cocktail is the most sophisticated of the ploys, and clearly agrees to all or some part of the allegation but uses the loop in technique to include crisis messaging. Sent as a quote and usually written, it forces the hack to use the statement in full. Only the most savvy can do this bespoke but chances of being quoted out of context or half quoted remain high.
• Retraction or Rejoinder - These are mostly ego plasters to paper over bruised management egos, striking how the size of the retraction and rejoinder is in contrast to the placement, font size and prominence of the offending piece.
• Confirming statement - This is the pushover statement, executed along with a sincere sorry note and a display of the belly in submission. These are very bad for the ego and best suited for real tragedies, fraud, accidents, calamities and other industrial or infrastructure and government type of communicators.

I am sure there are hilarious variations sitting out there in your very fertile and successful minds and would love to get any more classification here or a anonymous war story, do feel obliged to share your scary knowledge with the tribe.

These are some concerning times that need both awareness of the stakes and training, if it is your privilege to be charged as the guardian of your brand and company image. There are lots of ploys the feverish hack employs to in the get-rich-quick-or-get-fired-trying, exclusive hunt. You need to understand that it is their job to report, to analyze, to predict and to expose, the end is fine but the means are most questionable. This pool is further muddied by competition and the dirty tricks department using friendly media for planting, seeding or plain obfuscating an issue. I will not use examples but the watchful here will see and read patterns in politics, industry and most media reporting, even that front page headline or the lead story on that television channel that looks innocent at first pass. Go figure…

If they know that you know, then you will receive their respect and maybe the show can continue down the road for all. Right now these are dangerous times for Image and Brand and all seems fair in the media war for exclusives. Next week sticking to a statement and dodging trick questions on the phone. Happy skirmishing! 

Has it not been debated before? Yes, it has been. Have we not wasted enough cups of coffee arguing over it? Yes, we have. So, are we ready to bury and tombstone the topic? No, not in the near future.

The debate over what a client says he wants and what he really wants will live for as long as the marketing communications and, more specifically, the PR industry lives and thrives. The briefs will always be brief and the expectations will mean ‘under promise, over deliver’ (the mantra that all PR managers chant around their mentees). I would have never brought this up but for an incident that spewed out the rotting question – should I believe what the client wants or am I looking in the wrong direction?

Picture this – the Chairman of a large and well-respected real-estate major briefs a PR team about what is expected from the PR campaign. Brand image, reputations, lineage, forthcoming IPO: almost everything is discussed. The expectations are clear – the company is to be projected as the leading real estate player in India. Everything sounds positive. The agency has bagged the account and is eager, satisfied and very comfortable in the extra soft, leather sofa. The old man seems a decent bloke. “No sweat, Mr. Chairman; your will be done.”

The team steps out of the suite on the 10^th floor and is immediately ensconced by the till-now reticent Corp Comm manager. Two things are made clear. The cheque will be signed after the press coverage report is received. Whatever the Chairman said was gas. The success of the campaign would be directly proportional to the thickness of the media coverage report, which should start thickening as soon as the team leaves the client’s office.

Now, wait a minute! Where exactly do brand strategy, image management, PR policy figure in this dry and very hollow scheme of things?

We can’t deny that there are more opportunities for PR professionals in India than ever before. Companies have started valuing the importance of public relations for their business. But when it comes to measuring its success it is still how thick a press coverage report looks. Building relationships with the target audience, nurturing a public image, paying attention to the demands of that ever important ingredient to your success called Press – these concepts will still take some time to bloom. So when a new luxury store is opened, the thrust is not on the years the brand will spend in India and how it should be perceived by the niche consumers. Sadly it’s on how many video cameras are seen at the launch and how many press clips appear after the hackneyed P3 party.

But we should not be complaining too much. There was a time when PR meant going on media rounds with bad photocopies and even worse media lists. Press coverage was really about cutting every single newspaper snippet and admiring it with the zest of a mother looking at a new-born baby. Things have changed a bit and the same things are now done with much more style…

In hind sight, the days when more and more companies would expect agencies to walk the talk and do some real PR wizardry are round the corner. A few of us need to get out of the complacent mode and be willing to do things differently. If the ‘MNC culture’ (another cliché awaiting burial) has survived and thrived, we can be sure that more professional understanding between PR agencies and companies can’t be far behind. Till then the debate will continue and many more words will be wasted. But only briefly…

It’s not been so much difficult writing this but to get people to open up and give their point of view …and since everyone has a right to privacy, that’s a request which has been made to me by most people I spoke to and I will adhere to that. The topic here is about mis-behaviour and mis demeanor with PR professionals by Clients and sometimes journalists too. PR as a profession has long been considered to be a profession that heavily relies on wining and dining and guess it is that perception that drives forward the intent of some people to think that it is okay to act fresh or make advances to people who belong to this profession. Albeit I would like to deny personally that that happens only in PR, since I do know that there are people with lewd mentality every where and you meet them wherever you go. It is how you deal with it, what you come across and the action you take against the person is what matters the most.

I have been speaking to branch heads, team leaders and heads of organisations I know to whom I posed the question in terms of what would they do if someone from their team was treated in any way that was vulgar and sick. Almost all of them said that they would immediately take cognisance of it and bring it to the notice of the senior most people in the organisation both at the Client’s end as well as the agency. And if after warnings, the problem persisted, they would give up the account no matter what. Some of them have given up accounts because the problem persisted.

But again the discussion is not so black and white…mis behaviour, mis demeanor and harassment is not always one sided. It is very much a function of how each one of us conducts ourselves, how we behave, how we talk, our mannerisms, the signals we pick and give out and if there is anything that makes the other person feel that one is ‘available’ issues such as these crop up. However there have also been instances when guys have been harassed by female Clients and that’s when I realised that gender issues are no more about just women…they are beyond all lines and rules…it’s all individualistic and very dependant on situations and people themselves.

Some rules that I try to follow as a girl in this profession….

• Never go alone for Client meetings or media rounds unless you know the people really well

• Always go with someone along and have the team anyways with you….so that you are not just in good company but also do not have to come back and summarise the meeting details to your team

• Try to meet Clients and Media in their offices and if you are meeting them outside for lunch or snack meet at a place which is more fun, casual and crowded instead of restaurants with a certain ambience

• Dress appropriately…. This is a profession of not just overt communication processes but of informal, subliminal and behavioral communication. Dress decently to not attract any unwanted attention

• Be professional in your behaviour and conduct • If in spite of all this, you are faced with an uncomfortable situation, do not shy away from talking about it, but bring it up to the notice of your seniors

• Do not get hysterical while reporting about the incident but state facts and get both parties involved

At the end of the day, stand up for yourself and if you think no one is taking an action against the unfair treatment, take a decision that protects your integrity and self esteem. Since nothing is more important than your self esteem.

Madhavi Mukherjee