As Eulogy!’s resident film geek, it never fails to amaze me how badly films seem to understand PR. Take Hancock, for example, where the ‘PR’ man actually worked in branding. Or de Niro’s role in Wag the Dog, where his character veers wildly from spin doctor to – bizarrely – warmonger to film director – but never actually what I would term PR.
This misunderstanding of the scope of PR runs across TV as well – just think how many people in the world think PR is what Edwina does in Ab Fab, or the spin doctoring in the BBC’s Absolute Power. While it might be part of the job (sometimes) to drink champagne, hold random brainstorms in circular rooms or spend time at long client lunches, nothing as yet has truly encapsulated the work that goes in behind the scenes to these perks or the real scope of the role.
Perhaps it’s because PR is so multidimensional; even in our office the work I do from day to day can vary wildly from what my colleagues are up to. Maybe it’s down to the shifting nature of media relations/ corporate communications/ event management/ client management and the hundred other roles that PR can, and does, accomplish. I just know I still have trouble explaining what my job really entails to my parents when something we have done appears in the paper. Should PR do a better job on its own coverage?
