Tuesday 26 January 2010

Trust Me. I'm In PR....


Good news for everyone working in PR. We're the least most distrusted profession in the UK, or the most least distrusted, whichever way you want to look at it really. Confused? I am - and I'm the one writing this. Best have a look at the poll I am talking about here.


Now, I’m not usually one to come out staunchly defending my job. I don’t feed the starving, save the children or even help grannies cross the road. Whilst doctors are busy putting pigs’ hearts into the infirm (they can do that now can’t they?), I am roving the Warwickshire countryside desperately seeking the tallest Christmas tree in Europe, or listing “Castle for Sale on Ebay” or posting Stilton to journalists.


No, PR isn’t going to bring about world peace – but to compare us to bankers? Please. These people brought the country to its knees, got the tax payers to bail them out and then paid themselves walloping great bonuses to commend their ingenuity.


And it doesn’t stop there. Some people actually think PROs are less trustworthy than politicians. Now that really hurts. I rarely remember to claim back my expenses and even when I do remember, I’ve already lost the receipts. Of course, politicians don’t need receipts for their expenses and until recently managed to get things like duck ponds past their finance team. I, on the other hand, have to have a pretty good reason for claiming back a glass of Blue Nun from the “Duck in the Pond”. You see, we’re a world apart.


Recently, for reasons I won’t go into here, I found myself in a Wetherspoons at 1030 am. I expected to find the place deserted but instead, the place was packed to the rafters with people without teeth, drinking bitter for breakfast. I got all shirty that I was working my little socks off whilst they sat around getting tanked-up at the tax payers’ expense. I quickly realised that I had come over all Daily Mail and gave myself a good middle-class talking to. After all, it costs me far more to keep bankers in Bollinger.


Like I say, I’m not one to usually defend my career. I accept that there are more virtuous professions out there – but this poll was a step too far, even for me. You see, a PRO can’t make a profession out of lying as we have to get our stories past the most cynical of all professionals – the press. But wait, journalists are even less trustworthy than me according to this particular poll.


Of course, they do naughty things like expose politicians for expense swindling and bankers for big fat bonuses. Who’d want to trust them?


I tell you who I don’t trust – the people that voted in this poll!

1 comment:

  1. You've never sent *me* any bloody Stilton...(an incorruptible journalist writes).

    Regards
    Guy
    www.clapperton.co.uk

    ReplyDelete