SPINdustry – Discrediting PR in 30 Minutes

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By Ikama via Flckr

I was watching TV over the weekend with my husband and happened to be on the E! Channel. We started watching this show called SPINdustry, which has the “inside” look of public relations. I don’t know about you, but I thought this show did more to harm to PR than enlighten what the industry is about. Here are three things I took away:

1. PR People are Bitchy: If you were to watch this show, you would think that everyone is backstabbing and looking out for only one’s career.

2. No Strategy Required: In this episode, the “gals” were running around putting together an event in one day. It just seemed that there was no strategy for the work beyond getting the big name stars to use their client’s product so it would appear in the magazines the following day.

3. PR Executives Just “Hob Nob”: The two main executives seemed to do no heavy lifting besides meeting with clients, having lunch and showing up at the venue right before it started.

It’s unfortunate that a show like this will be seen as being representative of public relations. While the client’s product was photographed in multiple consumer magazines, I’m unsure what the true objective of the PR program was. The client’s messages and objectives seemed to get lost in the process.

Maybe this is how entertainment PR is done and how it dramatically differs from technology PR. I would love any insight from someone from the entertainment industry. Is this show TRULY representative of your industry?