Kyle,
I wanted to get back with you on that question you had for me last week. We were talking about school and what I am studying and you asked me what PR was. Sorry I didn’t have time to talk much about it then, all I really told you was that it stands for public relations.
To put it simply, public relations is when you try to cast a positive image to the public about a certain product, company, service, or even other person. I know you’ve heard of advertising and that’s basically what PR is, but you’re advertising a positive image to the public or the consumers.
There are many ways this positive image is projected too. You might read about something charitable that a celebrity did in the newspaper or a magazine. There could be a commercial on TV about a toxic waste company trying to be more environmental. PR is just creating goodwill for a person or product.
An excellent example of public relations would be Michael Vick. He was in jail for two years for his involvement in dog fighting. Now he is out of jail and wants to play in the NFL again. Many teams were weary of signing him to play because they were afraid of what their fans would think. Tons of people are outraged with Vick because of what he did to those dogs and the NFL teams knew that if he was on their team, they would receive a lot of hatred from those people and they would potentially lose a lot of fans.
In order to boost his public image, Vick hired a PR team to help reverse the way people felt about him. To tell his story, he had an interview on “60 Minutes”, explaining why he did what he did, how prison changed him, and what he wants to do with his future. He is also trying to make a deal with the Humane Society to help stop dog fighting. Those are just a couple of things he did that came from his public relations team, trying to change the way people perceive him.
Public relations is an ever-changing career and can be lots of fun. I hope I answered your question clearly and if there’s anything else you’d like to know, just ask.
Thanks,
Jon
