Tough Love with The Sagacious Swami of Spin

Back for a sixth issue of Willard Marketing Monthly to answer the toughest of questions on advertising, public relations and life in general is the Sagacious Swami of Spin. If you have questions, just send them to Swami@twg.com.ua .

(Warning: Willard Marketing Monthly pays the "Swami" to be the "Swami". We don't always agree with his advice. Consider him sort of a Dr. House of communications.)

Dear Swami,

If one wishes to enter the field of public relations, should one study PR in the university?
PR Hopeful

Dear PR Hopeful

To tell you the truth Hopeful, and this will make all those public relations professors cringe, but you are better off reading the back of cereal boxes or studying the limited and useless life of the fruit fly.

Public relations is a way of thinking. That Willard guy calls it Galaxy Thinking and believes he came up with the idea. He didn't. He just put a new name on what good PR people do on their best days. It's Biblical.

If you really want a career in PR, become a psychologist, or better still, work a couple of years for a newspaper, a news-related internet site or in the news-gathering end of the television or radio business. Be a carnie for a while.

The basic tools of the PR trade can be learned in a week. However, to be really good at the profession, you never stop learning about people, and the way they react to events and situations.

Sure, you can find example after example of good public relations in books, but it won't stick. You have to walk the walk before you even think about talking the talk.

A couple of PR courses are okay, but don't take them too seriously. It is sort of like chicken soup for a cold. It probably won't help, but it won't hurt.

Dear Swami,

Where did the word lobby originate?

Curious

Dear Curious,

It goes without saying that this is the most soft ball question your Swami has ever received. The term comes from the lobby of the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C.

It seems civil war general and post-war President Ulysses S. Grant much preferred the nearby Willard Hotel for his afternoon libations to the White House. So, he retired most evenings to the lobby of the Willard.

There, with a favorite beverage in hand, he entertained petitioners with various problems who would stop by and talk with him. Thus, they became lobbyists and the term has been used frequently ever since.

Dear Swami,

I work for an ad company that's experienced a tremendous fall off in business over the last year due to the recession. When will this thing end?
Frustrated

Dear Frustrated,

Who do you think I am, Sir Martin Sorrell? To tell you the truth I don't know if this recession is bathtub shaped, "L" shaped or shaped like a size-D bra cup. I will leave the alliterations to Sir Martin who drones on about such things.

But, to answer your question, the recession will officially end June 3, 2010 at 3:10 p.m. Kyiv time. You can take that prediction to the bank, preferably Nadra Bank.

Dear Swami,

I've read dozens of definitions of public relations. Some appear contradictory and many just banal. What is the Swami's definition of public relations?
Perplexed

Dear Perplexed,

To stir you out of your perplexity syndrome, the Swami offers several definitions, but first, a confession

Lassoing PR definitions is about like herding buffalo on those proverbial roller skates. And that might be what's wrong with the profession. It is difficult to define.

My simply definition is public relations is the practice of commonsense. However, since those in the profession wish to get paid and commonsense seems to have little currency, I have other definitions.

The one most accurate is "favorably influencing events and situations through word and actions." It's simple and to the point.

Then, I have my more Machiavellian definition, or, as I sometimes refer to it as my white sneakers view of PR which you will find listed elsewhere in this magazine.

It's "telling someone-generally a CEO-what he or she already knows but doesn't want to acknowledge and doing it in such a compelling manner they take your advice."