Ethics In The Biz

The other day I was in the grocery store and looking to buy some crackers for the chunk of cheddar cheese I just picked up. Always satisfied with the ever tastey Ritz cracker, I decided to grab a box. Happy with my decision, I smiled at the red and blue box poking out of my grocery bag. When I got home, I asked my boyfriend to grab the Ritz crackers and bring them into the living room. He headed over to the grocery bags and started laughing. Bringing the box of red and blue over he told me that I had bought Harris Teeter brand crackers. I suddenly realized that I fell into their ever sucessful advertising trick of making their box resemble the well-known and trusted Ritz box. Astounded by my mistake, I started to question whether I applauded Harris Teeter for their strategic effort or madened by their trickery. This question led me to think about how organizations present their image and advertise their products or selves everday.
Of course, this led me to think about the ever popular topic of business ethics.
In my Social Media and PR class I learned that there are 3 basic approaches to ethical belief systems: absolutist, existentialist, and situationalist. In an absolutist belief system, something can only be either right or wrong. In an existentialist belief system, decisions cannot be made without thinking about the current context. And, in the situationalist belief system, a decision is made depending on what does the most good or least amount of harm. Since, I think that there is more to just right and wrong, I do not believe in an absolutist ethical belief system. If I had to chose, I think organizations should practice ethics depending on the current context. Once the current context is reviewed, then an organization could think about how they can present their image or advertise a product doing the most good or least amount of harm to the public.
However, this is not as easy as one may think. There are many fine lines when it comes to ethical PR conduct within organizations and it is very easy to cross the line. For instance our PR prof. urged us to question whether it is wrong to hire a reporter or journalist to present an organization in a favorable light or whether it is wrong to have a scientist within an organization present findings to the public (even though they could be biased). Or, when a PR rep puts an organization online our prof pushed us to question whether it is ok to use a domain name similar to a competitor or whether it is ok to follow or friend the public online in order to get them to notice and follow the organization back. While, I do feel that some of these ways may purposely be utilized to trick the public, I find them all ethically sound.
Furthermore, while Harris Teeter (HT) was deceitful in making a box identical to Ritz, I do not feel that there was anything unethical about it. HT may have used the same colors, but all one had to do was read the label and realize they were not Ritz crackers. This is a dog-eat-dog world and organizations need to get competitve in order to be successful. As long as a PR rep does not present false information to the public or break any laws, I say any advertising tactic is fair game.

The Bullshit Artist: To Be Or Not To Be?

About a month ago my boyfriend told someone that I wanted to pursue a career in public relations. Their response to him: "O so she wants to be a bullshit artist." I laughed when he told me this, because I myself have always thought of PR reps as saavy individuals who have a way with their words. To tell you the truth, I do not mind presenting whatever image a company asks me to or whatever image I feel the need to present for them. My duty is first to my company and than to the public...right?
The month went by and I gave no further thought to my career choice or what would be expected of me. A couple days ago, I read a very interesting article, "Changing vistas in public relations theory" by Stephen Mackey(2003). In this article, Mackey talks about J. Grunig and an emphasis on practicing PR symmetrically vs. asymmetrically. What is this you ask? Well, according to Grunig, PR is traditionally run asymmetrically. This means that an organization's main goal is to advance the "standing and the projects" of the organization. In other words, a PR rep must always have the interest of the organization in mind before anything else. Grunig proposes that PR reps that practice symmetrically help the targeted public and organization benefit from their services equally.
I wonder how possible this really is. Can people formally known as "bullshit artists" equally serve the public and an organization? You would think this is simple. However, think about all that would be at stake if a company asked a PR rep to practice symmetrically. A company would need to be ethically sound. In other words, a PR rep would honestly share with the public everything an organization has to offer (good and bad). In crisis situations, there would be no smooth cover up because a PR rep would need to share every crucial detail with the public. If one detail was left out, a PR rep would be looking out for the organization first, no? In an ideal world this is very possible. Unfortunately, we do not live in an ideal world. But, that should not stop us or PR reps!! Symmetry could be a great new way to practice PR. The consumers should always come first and it is important to give them everything they need! Let me know your thoughts!

The Main Course

As you can see, I have been a blogger since May 2009. It is now, Jan. 2010 and I have no posts to show for myself. I never knew what to write about or how I would even compile the thoughts I have. It is always easier when I'm writing a paper for school and given some direction to go in with a grading rubric to follow. Anticipating when I would finally make the move to write that first post, I got a shove from my graduate professor in my Social media and PR class.
Since this blog is also part of my contribution in my Social media and PR class I will be writing about a variety of things. Half the time I will write about my thoughts about social media applications and how they have changed or effect the world we live in. I will also explore various ways to effectively "PR" and how organizations today save and distribute their image. The other half of the time I will probably talk about anything that interests me that day (an exciting article, show I watched, game I saw, etc). I figured why restrict myself to just one topic.
So, I just wanted to say hi and talk about what will be on the plate for you guys as long as this blog is around. That is all for today, and look for more posts starting tmrw!