PR , Spin, Propaganda, whatever you wish to call it, Public Relations can, in the right hands, be a an extraordinarily powerful tool that is basically the practice of 'managing and controlling' the flow of information between the advertiser (company, brand, individual) to the public or to other companies, using all manner of methods that generally do not require direct payment to any media.

A Public Relations company may filter stories, ideas or plans to the media (i.e. news items, TV etc), they may encourage publications to include information of their product within editorials (or the more elaborate 'advertorials') and even 'create' news using product based stunts.

Public Relations companies often control the perception of their client by managing publicity events, such as 'Meet & Greet' (bringing together the client with other companies, or the 'brand' with the public) which could be anything from a small cheese and wine party at the company's offices to a huge Open Day at Wembley Stadium.

They may also use all sorts of tricks to bring their clients 'message' to the Target Audience, including photo opportunities, press releases, direct mail (usually business-to-business), product launches, celebrity endorsements, online PR and (my favourite!) publicity stunts, which can sometimes be rather ingenious, like this one...

The American company Taco Bell scored a blinder when the Russian space station Mir was due to drop into the Pacific Ocean. The company set up a giant bullseye in the sea with their logo dead centre, offering every American a free taco should the Russians hit the mark. Of course the chances of that happening were virtually zero, but the publicity was worth a fortune as the stunt was seen on nationwide TV and on front pages of most major newspapers. The cost to Taco Bell, a few thousand. The publicity was worth millions!

And one that was not so clever.

Back in the more reserved 1970s, a 'clever' PR person produced a campaign for a famous London department store to announce the arrival of their new Maternity & Baby section using the label of 'Maternity Wear for the Modern Miss'.
The campaign reached a crescendo with extensive Newspaper editorial, TV news coverage and the stores extensive windows emblazoned with banners... 'Maternity Wear for the Modern Miss'.

All very exciting, until a passer-by from Oxford Street wandered in and queried the word 'Miss' (i.e. unmarried!) and an army of panicking staff rushed around quickly removing all the offending publicity.

The cost to the store - a few grand, quite a few red faces and, with an ironic PR twist, the very same media pounced! The phrase 'hoist by their own petard' comes to mind.

And can it go wrong? As you've just seen above, yes it can, and the usual reason is that the company has tried to handle their own PR.

A great Public Relations company is worth it's weight in gold

Or so they tell me.

"It's a good day to bury bad news"
Jo Moore, British Government Press Officer, September 11th 2001