Unacceptable behavior in a feud between PR firms
The Code of Ethics that binds members of the International Association of Business Communicators features several provisions, among them…
- Professional communicators refrain from taking part in any undertaking which the communicator considers to be unethical.
- Professional communicators do not use confidential information gained as a result of professional activities for personal benefit and do not represent conflicting or competing interests without written consent of those involved.
Further, Article 1—which deals with “honest, candid and timely communication”—begins with these words: “Professional communicators uphold the credibility and dignity of their profession.”
I am most familiar with this code because of my 30-year membership in IABC. I have never been a member of the Public Relations Society of America, but PRSA’s code includes similar language:
- Public relations professionals work constantly to strengthen the public’s trust in the profession.
- (It is a member’s responsibility to) build respect and credibility with the public for the profession of public relations.
PRSA’s code also addresses hiring practices, requiring members to “Follow ethical hiring practices designed to respect free and open competition without deliberately undermining a competitor.”
Finally, there’s the Council of Public Relations Firms, whose code of ethics offers this concrete rule:
Members of the Council commit to standards of practice that assure clients, the public and media, employees, and business partners and vendors the highest level of professionalism and ethical conduct in every relationship with a Council member. This commitment is a requirement for application and continued membership in the Council.
If either BlinnPR or 5WPR are not censured by any of these three organizations to which they may happen to belong, then we can relegate these codes of ethics to the dustbin of inefficacy. Both organizations have engaged in behavior that stains the profession and reinforces the worst perceptions of public relations. If ever there was an incident over which these codes need to be implemented, the BlinnPR/5WPR slugfest is it.
Equally disturbing is the fact that the smackdown started over Chris Anderson’s post that called the PR profession out for unprofessional behavior! You may remember that Anderson listed over 300 email addresses of PR people who sent him unrequested, irrelevant pitches. Gleeful that his nobody from his own company was included, Steve Blinn evidently sent emails to employees and clients of 5WPR, employees of which did make Anderson’s blacklist. 5WPR could taken the high road as the aggrieved party. Sadly, both EVP Adam Handelsman and founder Ronn Torossian opted to sink to the same level, threatening to poach Blinn employees and clients. You can read many of these emails over at Silicon Alley Insider, which is covering the story, but here’s just a taste from an email Torossian apparently sent to Blinn employees:
Show us your paychecks and we will give you a $20K raise. Email me anonymously. If you send me your clients contact info and we close them I will give you $10K and your firm will never ever know. Please feel free to contact me and no one will ever know.
Restraint and dignity are clearly notions alien to both parties involved, and the result is the reinforcement of all those perceptions we struggle to overcome every day. Take, for example, this comment posted to the Silicon Alley Insider blog:
Ah, this is nice to see. I always thought that PR was a bullshit industry run by idiots who generally do more harm than good for your company…. and now I see that this is the case.
Thanks for the insightful emails… always good to see the shards exposed for the jackasses they are.
Like Lawywers and Venture Capitalsits, these are parasites on the creative and productive…. and their desperation makes it clear that they know it!
We need this? We don’t have enough trouble building PR’s reputation as a valued and ethical service? Once again, all the hard-working, professional practitioners who serve their clients’ needs and interests by toiling every day to be innovative and ethical are painted by the brush wielded by fools who clearly care more about their own feud than they do the public relations profession of which they are a part.
There has been some coverage of the BlinnPR/5WPR catfight, but most of it has reflected amusement. Ed Lee, in his terrific post, says, “Fantastic stuff—I had a great laugh while studiously ignoring some crappy medical drama??”
Maybe I have no sense of humor, but I didn’t laugh. There can be no excuse for this kind of behavior and the associations that oversee the profession cannot condone it.
You can find more reporting on the dustup here:
Neville and I also covered this on today’s FIR.
11/08/07 | 15 Comments | Unacceptable behavior in a feud between PR firms