COMMUNICATIONS PRACTITIONERS
How honesty not puritanism is the best policy
The Bell Pottinger debacle puts PR ‘spin doctors’ in the spotlight
The events surrounding Bell Pottinger and its relationship with Oakbay Investments raise profound questions for all firms involved in the world of strategic communications. It may be that Oakbay is a real nightmare client and there are few others like it. It is easy to say no to a prospective client whose goal is the impoverishment of SA’s fiscus through fraudulent schemes and undermining of the country’s democracy. However, almost invariably firms like ours are hired because the client has a problem of some sort. There are people out there unhappy with the client for some reason or who are unaware why they should like the company in question or its products. That is where our sector’s own reputational problem begins. The oft-used term to describe us — spin doctors — carries in it the root of the problem. There is an assumption that we will use, and are required to use, manipulative techniques and inaccurate information to achieve our client’s objectives; that the client is doing so...
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