Ryan Anderson dot ca

I don’t really like answering the question “so what do you do for a living,” because unless the person I’m talking to is particularly knowledgable of the public relations and advertising industries, it usually necessitates a long answer. The fact is, most people don’t understand PR, and I think that has something to do with the fact that now, more than ever, we’re struggling to understand ourselves.

Those who don’t know what PR is have a hard time understanding. It’s not surprising – it’s really not an easy industry to understand because it’s extremely broad, and for the most part, it’s far behind the scenes. We’re not making television commercials or writing articles. We’re out of the public spotlight, advising and making relationships, but rarely are we out in the open – the centre of attention.

Those who do, or at least think they do, usually don’t. Even more, they don’t understand the arena that we operate in. Many don’t really understand where news comes from, that company spokespeople are usually well-trained and that many reporters rely on PR people to even begin to understand what it is they’re writing about (I sense a few of my journalist friends composing their response to that even now).

My point is, we work in an industry that is only truly understood by ourselves. Combine that with a typically adversarial relationship with the media and a general misconception of PR practioners as charlatans and liars, and that pretty much tells you why, when asked, I usually say I work for an ad agency and change the subject.

I recently went out for drinks with a friend of mine who is a computer engineer. He’s obviously very interested in how the Web is changing the world, but is somewhat in the dark about the whole social mediascape and how it’s changing the world of communications. After about three pitchers of me prattling on about conversations and the growing empowerment of the consumer through education, he finally said to me something that will stick with me forever.

“Wow. You’re not nearly as evil as I thought.”

This is a man I have been friends with for years, whose band I helped get publicity while we were in university, who I started a company with, and who I have talked to about PR and advertising many times in the past. Even still – he didn’t really understand, because unless I outlined every trivial task that I encounter in a day, only knows that my job is to gain positive coverage and avoid the negative. He (and I think many others) assume that this is done through spin and lies. Sometimes it is – it’s not like every PR person is completely innocent – but on the whole, every textbook on the subject will tell you that shading the truth is the worst thing you can do.

I’m the only PR person where I work. My job is valued, but not entirely understood. They have a pretty good idea of what I do, but not always how or why. In the end, it’s my job to educate them on what PR is and how it fits into an organization, just as it is our responsibility to educate the public on what PR is and isn’t.

Maybe all it will take is to split a few pitchers with everyone in the world for them to understand. At the very least, it can’t hurt.