If you dance with the PR devil, defend what you do

I love my job. Most of the time. But I hate the company the PR industry keeps sometimes.

For every company that uses PR for public good, there is another that is prepared to take the petro-chemical-dictatorial dollar.

And while I may not approve of these firms’ ethics, I’d defend their right to take that dollar. As long as they are honest about what they do.

However, take PR firm Media Zoo.

I don’t see how they can defend child labourers (and celebrate the fact they do so on their website), but then crap on to PR Week about how they’re being unfairly treated by the media and politicians for highlighting this fact.

As Stuart Bruce put it, Media Zoo’s response to Tom Watson and Unite’s criticism of their involvement in the Ineos affair, is “weak and possibly more damaging than helpful.”

Frankly, if you’re going to dance with the devil, at least have the guts to defend what you do. And accept that in our industry not everyone is going to be happy with what we do.

And just as I think that some ad agencies show the sick side of their industry, some PR agencies are even worse.

Cover image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewvenn