How would you spin that? Don’t spin it, bin it
Mumbrella recently reported on a pilot episode of a new Gruen-style public relations TV show ‘How Would You Spin That?’ Eleven’s Fee Townshend says it should go straight in the bin.
How would I spin this? Umm… I’d take this right off the turntable. This is just a bad idea and my recommendation would be don’t spin it. Bin it.
At a time when the best marketing campaigns in the world are judged by the amount of earned impact they achieve, the last thing the PR industry deserves is a show that centres around a very narrow (and more importantly perhaps, outdated) segment of our profession.
Let’s not overstate things here. Ogilvy did not free Greste, they created a campaign that helped amplify the issue.
The lack of self awareness on display in this puffery is staggering. If this isn’t mendacious spin of the highest order, I would be remiss to know what was.
Can someone please take that pilot back to the edit and cut out every agonizing beat. The intro’s!!!
I agree, Fee.
I was horrified upon reading the concept for ‘How would you spin this’. Any such show would severely damage the reputation professional PR practitioners have spent years building and the positive work we have done to help corporates engage and listen to their communities, governments to deliver relevant programs for their communities and employees to feel engaged and connected to their company’s strategy. Not to mention the role brands play in making positive social change.
The idea is narrow-minded, ignorant and unfunny. It’s certainly not satirical.
Agree. It will be binned, because nobody cares. Gruen works as people have daily experiences with television advertising. Gruen is served on the same medium.
Don’t agree that the best marketing campaigns in the world are judged by the amount of earned impact they achieve. The best marketing campaigns achieve what they set out to do.
PRs are sometimes referred to spin doctors, publicists, flacks… Get over it. Lawyers are often referred to as sharks – doesn’t mean every legal degree generates a desire to be a predator.
Agree fully, and what concerns me is when PR practitioners themselves use the terms spin to describe what they do, even if ironically. You dont see financiers calling themselves Shylocks, or dentists calling themselves fang-merchants, or lawyers calling themselves blood-sucking ambulance-chasers. The idea of spin and spin-doctors is anathema to what most of us do, but we need to stop saying that ourselves and we need to object when we see it in news headlines by lazy/jealous journalists
The fact is that there is a lot of spin in your sector. MOST of advertising and marketing is spin. Did you miss that somehow? Or is it all hand-holding and health-awareness? Sure it might old-school to think of things this way, but it’s also still the contemporary mode, which means the show is relevant, despite your over-defensive attempt to tear it down. Dry your eyes, princess, I’m sure the nasty ABC wont try to lampoon your gay campaign.
Your summation of what PR Practitioners actually do is spot on. I think the idea of a public relations TV show is a good idea but agree that we need to convey the positives of the profession and dispel the “dark side” myth.
One of the largest industries in the world is one of the biggest users of PR. The Music industry is – ironically- formed on ‘spin’ not paid Advertising.
Two things jump out at me from ‘How would you spin that?’
First, the pilot trades on old assumptions and fictional stereotypes about PR people. While it’s clearly exaggerated satire, it’s almost from another world. PR in 2017 doesn’t look like this at all. Right now PR and Communication (in government, not for profits, and private and corporate practice) is focused on ethical practice and strategic communication, not the sort of nonsense the panel is describing.
Second, the industry knows from its own hypothetical that practitioners are only interested in supporting something if the discussion is based on real world issues — most often ethical and legal — properly and ethically presented, and representing the complexity of the our expertise and contribution. I can’t see anyone signing up for a panel to reinforce the sort of fictional PR scenarios outlined in the pilot. There are very few PR and Communication professionals who would condone or suggest non-ethical practice.
While the industry can’t claim any protection from satire, criticism and comedy (think TV’s Absolute Power, Absolutely Fabulous, Yes Minister and a string of political satires, including Utopia and even Gruen). All these are based closely (but not entirely) on the real world of public relations. The last thing the industry needs is highly coloured representations of what I would described as annoying, overblown and fictional PR.
I agree with others who have suggested it be spun straight into the bin like last week’s leftovers. That’s the majority view of a large number of people in the industry I’ve talked to over the past few days.
It’s a kite – you wanted some reaction. So hand me the scissors – I’ll snip the string. I’d trust the networks and creative producers to come to the same conclusion.
Jenny Muir
National President, PRIA