The 'face' of PR

As discussed in my previous blog to tell the truth should always be in the forefront of PR practitioners minds, especially when dealing with difficult campaigns. In reply to the previous comments on my previous blog post I believe that the emotions of the public should be taken into consideration however the basis of a campaign should be done with the greater good of the public in mind. It is finding that balance and choosing how to deliver a message which can prove difficult.

So as PR practitioners we should always look to tell the truth and follow our ethical guideline, however when it comes to celebrity PR the lines often blur. Max Clifford is a famous PR ‘guru’ who is employed by many of Hollywood’s stars with the intention of keeping their reputation in check.  Max Clifford often gets paid to hide the truth or not tell the whole truth as it’s the best interest of his clients, this was the case with Jimmy Savile “he was aware of claims about Savile sexuallyabusing girls”. With Max knowing so much information of the claims years before they came out was he really abiding to the pillars of ethics. Or does it not matter that he knew all along but did little about it.

In PR the sender of the message and the way in which the message is sent can often have a big impact on how it is received by the public. In the case of Max Clifford as he is well known and liked by a lot of people little actually hindered him in keeping the allegations quiet, so it is all down to the likeability of a company or person?

According the Perloff  as citied in Tench and Yeomans there are 4 key elements on how to judge how suited a speaker is for a specific audience these include:

Expertise- how competent the speaker is on the issue

Trustworthiness- this includes confidence and likeability

Similarity- credible speakers should be like the receiver (homophily) unless the subject concerns different experiences or expertise, in which case they should be dissimilar (heterophily)

Physical attractiveness- people tend to trust attractive speakers- which may reflect the social value attached to appearance, as in celebrity PR

Perloff is suggesting that by choosing the right person to send a message to the right audience it will have a positive impact on the way the message is sent. When looking at celebrity PR it would be using a well known and liked to be the face of the message. When looking into the public sector the most suitable speaker would be someone of authority and trust within the audience group. So by putting the right face on the right message does this mean the PR practitioner is trying to spin the message in a positive way?

Even when you get the right ‘face’ it can all still go wrong. From Kate Moss being dropped by H&M, Chanel and many other to Jamie Oliver admitting he does not buy from Sainsbury’s for his restaurants when he represented them. Working with celebrities can prove difficult and picking the right person does not always work out in the long run. Companies will drop them quickly in order to protect their reputation. Is this really part of the bigger PR picture just promoting and protecting reputations?

However even with the right person picked to send the message the issue of how the message is sent and whether the sender will receive the intended message is something that needs to be considered. When sending a message the receiver must consider any noise that could disrupt the message being sent (the right sender might affect this) and how the message is then received and decoded.

Tench and Yeomans argue that ”. So persuasion can be connected to who is sending the message and the way in which the message is received. By using celebrities or important figures to deliver the message are these big companies just participating in the art of propaganda and persuasion?

Do companies just use celebrities in their self-interest and do not care when things go wrong as long as their reputation is intact? I will be looking into the self-interests of companies and the tools they use in order to better their reputation in the eyes of the public in my next blog post.