By Anna Pickard.

1.Publicity is free and easy:

Most journalists are truly lovely people and many of them I now count as genuine friends. Some are not so lovely, and this makes publicity far from ‘free and easy’. Achieving coverage for a client is no simple feat; it is a long and treacherous journey and is often the result of strong relationships PRs have been forging and nurturing over the years. Every PR remembers their first experience of a rude journalist (mine was particularly bad and went something along the lines of, ‘if you send me a story as boring as this again, I’ll kill myself)…that’s the main reason we have thick skin! 

If any journalists are reading this, please be nice to the next PR who rings you! We know you’re very busy, because so are we.

2.We’re all Samantha Jones wannabes:

Don’t get me wrong, we have our fabulous moments rubbing shoulders with celebs at an all-expenses-paid party, but I assure you these occasions are few and far between. Most weeks consist of long hours, hard work and stressful phone calls. In fact, you’ll rarely find a PR that doesn’t check their emails at 10pm at night. How Samantha had time to enjoy all of her other ‘hobbies’ is beyond me.

3.We ‘fanny about with press releases’:

I’m sure every PR professional will tell you they seethe with rage when Daniel Cleaver drops this line in Bridget Jones’ diary.  While writing the press releases in question, poor Bridget was probably also organising an event for 300 people, responding to social media complaints, drafting a proposal, updating budget sheets, speaking to difficult journalists and single-handedly dealing with a media (and/ or personal) crisis… just one of the reasons she’s our hero.

4.PRs are essentially promo girls:

My mum is convinced I’m a promo girl (mainly because PR didn’t exist back in the good old days). As a quick FYI mum, I have never handed out flyers on a ‘strip’ in Malia, so there you go.

5.All press is good press

Our MD, Jaime, would like to have a very strong word with the person who coined this phrase. Let’s just leave that one there…

Thanks for reading this blog. I hope it’s dispelled some of those myths you’ve heard about PR and I’ve given you a little insight into the profession. I can probably think of about 10 more myths that I’d like to address here but now is not the time – I have some networking to do at a rooftop bar. Ciao, darlings.