Hey client! Two minutes for looking so good, you handsome devil!
1May 23, 2006 by Colin
Is a public relations counsellor’s primary motivation to “make their client look good?” That was the point offered during a favoured podcast this week, and I found myself disagreeing quite animatedly with my car dashboard.
“Looking good” is certainly the goal for marketers, bzz agents, publicity agents, cosmetologists and Maurice Richard.
On a superficial level, PR counsellors are responsible for making sure their clients look good. A sustained and positive corporate, brand or personal image is always the desired result.
Nonetheless, an effective agency or in-house communicator should prepare their clients for any circumstance. That can include glowing puff pieces in the trades, a smooth quarterly call, and a glamorous product launch. It can also cover vital logistics delays, product recalls and labour unrest – not to mention marital discord.
The real test of the relationship formed between client and counsellor comes in those moments of pressure. Will a kowtowing desire for approbation (or a simplistic sense of politesse) prompt a communicator to minimize the challenges that will have to be faced before digging out of a negative public image? Or has the client been prepared, conditioned, warned that effective public relations sometimes means taking a couple of punches and living to see another day?
As the podcaster who uttered the phrase you quote, I owe you an explanation. I was being glib to a fault by not expanding on the point. You hit the nail on the head, however. I never meant to suggest that we exist as consultants to make the client look good at all costs i.e. shrugging that nuclear waste problem off with a laugh and a bridge to a key message.
What I meant is exactly what you wrote so precisely. We need to have their best interests at heart, give them the counsel they need to hear, exact a measure of tough love if required and prepare them for some lumps if they are coming.
Sober, honest counsel is the only way to make your client look good. Blowing sunshine up their butts and polishing their rose-coloured glasses does nobody any good.