Piaras Kelly PR - Public Relations in Ireland

The most frustrating thing about the many discussions involving public relations on the internet is that they tend to revolve at either end of a spectrum. You either get people harping on about how we’re nothing but a bunch of spin doctors or a group waxing lyrical about how great we are.

I’m always reminded about a scene from Donnie Darko where the characters in the movie have to discuss the fear and love spectrum, and what end of the spectrum influences a person’s decision. Here’s part of the ensuing conversation from the movie when Donnie (Jake Gyllenhaal) has to mark on the spectrum whether Ling Ling’s decision to keep or return a wallet she found on the street was driven by love or fear.

Donnie: Life isn’t that simple. I mean who cares if Ling Ling returns the wallet and keeps the money? It has nothing to do with either fear or love.
Kitty Farmer: Fear and love are the deepest of human emotions.
Donnie: Okay. But you’re not listening to me. There are other things that need to be taken into account here. Like the whole spectrum of human emotion. You can’t just lump everything into these two categories and then just deny everything else!

Working in PR doesn’t always involve sunshine, happiness and lollipops, but at the same time it doesn’t purely involve spinning stories or constantly making stupid follow up calls.

You’ll get some fantastic results for clients and delight them. Some clients you work for will either not understand the fact that PR isn’t advertising or simply never be happy with the results (thankfully that hasn’t happened to me yet). You’ll form some great bonds with journalists and you’ll end up pissing others off, either intentionally or through no fault of your own. Those are the simple facts of life.

As much as one crowd of commentators stress how they are changing the world of PR and are leading us to some utopia, those facts will very much remain the same ten years from now, as they will one hundred years from now. The reason why is very simple, this is real life and quite often, reality bites

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