Public Relations Ethics

All good questions but I'm focusing on the first. Having been in PR since the days when the fax machine was a new mode of communication, I see nothing wrong with ghost blogging or even tweeting, if you truly understand the message the "author" wishes to convey and have approval on the posts. For decades PR people have ghosted bylined articles for publication in traditional media by interviewing the author, understanding his/her message and simply using our writing skills to optimally communicate that message. Just like a smart CEO will hire a financial wiz to manage the books, an accomplished operations manager and solid HR expertise, they will hire strong communicators and whether the venue is a corporate brochure, an article, a press release, a website, a blog post or a tweet, ghosting is part of what we are here for.

Heather, great list of questions, too many to tackle here. Some have "easy" answers: if it's spam, troll flame then it's probably ok to delete a comment from a blog and/or Facebook, but that should be done with discretion. For some of the others, I'm a big fan of "when in doubt, disclose, disclose, disclose." Upfront, loud and clear, disclose.

I'll give one example from my past, when asked to do something unethical: way long story as short as possible, I was asked by a supervisor to rewrite his letter to a major supplier/vendor and in that letter add the marketing "spin, puffery" to sweeten the deal. Despite the fact that I wasn't his secretary (snerk), I rewrote the letter to give it more polish, make it more compelling and readable but did NOT add any undo exaggerations or hyperbole.

When I was called out on that, and was given specific suggestions as to what to add, I politely yet professionally declined, mentioning the ethical lapse that would be involved (not to mention potentially fraudulent/felonious, as the letter could have generated unearned price breaks, etc.). Did not go over well, and along with other things, it lead to my being let go from the company, for which I was relieved as I'd already started looking for a better place to work.

Bottom line: if it feels wrong in anyway, it probably is and you gotta do what you can to get it right. FWIW.

Some great questions here Heather. Not sure if there is a single bad one. I think with disclosure, it is OK to offer a client publicity via your Tweets or blog. However you need to be up front like Armano and Jason Falls who both flat out say that X is a client and that because of so, you are somewhat biased.

In terms of unethical, you need to determine if you can represent them depending on the offense. I would have no problems on most things, but could see a line having to be drawn.

Wow - tough questions all around, Heather! And important ones, too.

Ethics is a tough topic - there is not cut-and-dry right answer. So instead of talking around a non-answer, I'll share a recent PR ethics story.

I had been representing a non-profit for several years, doing way more than just PR - I was a consultant on their main event and even created satellite events that I planned and promoted to help bolster the primary annual event. I knew it had been a rough few years because of some strategic alliances that didn't pan out for the organization. But despite some financial issues, the main event was sold-out every year and, if I can pat myself on the back a bit, the PR before and after the event was superb :)

So you can imagine the shock I felt when a major newspaper called me to ask why the organization hadn't given a single penny to any charitable cause in three years. This reporter was someone who supported the event vigorously in the past and felt betrayed by this information. And honestly, I felt the same way, too.

Over the next week, I honestly represented the client. I would not lie, but I did my professional best to protect the organization through the big annual event. The day after the event, we resigned the account. I strongly felt an obligation to the attendees and the charity we were working for that year to do my best job to help them.

There was no crime here, just horrific mismanagement over several years, but it was something I couldn't in good faith promote anymore.

I worked for a public relations firm that specialized in crisis communication and environmental issues management for heavy industrial firms. The first pages of every contract were the PRSA code of ethics with a statement that the client signed stating that they read and understood the code and would not ask us to do anything that would violate that code. The statement went on to say that if we ever learned that they were not playing straight with us or we felt like they were putting us in the position of potentially violating the code, we would resign the account immediately without penalty to either side. We did, in one instance, resign a rather large account because of this, but none of our clients every balked at signing the contract, and it never became a problem. I believe if more PR firms did this we'd see an upswing in ethical PR.