This week in PR (8 July)

Author: Richard Bailey, Editor
8th July 2022 8 min read

About the author

Richard Bailey Hon FCIPR is editor of PR Academy's PR Place Insights. He teaches and assesses undergraduate, postgraduate and professional students.

It happened this week

Purpose and ESG

  • Lucy Walton: Turning Tide? (no date)
    ‘Whilst no metric is currently available to detect greenwashing, authorities and activists are targeting and analysing companies’ sustainability claims to interrogate the reliability of sustainability indices.’
  • Andrew Adie: The drum beat around greenwash is getting louder (5 July)
    ‘In an era where geopolitical tension and economic challenges are distracting political agendas from delivering net zero, the onus for driving change and impact will start to fall more heavily on corporates.’

Consulting, teams and careers

Gender, diversity and wellbeing

https://twitter.com/ebananuka/status/1542783075813318656

Public and third sectors

Politics, public affairs and public sphere

  • Amanda Coleman: Lies, damn lies and factual inaccuracies (6 July)
    ‘There are always going to be occasions where senior people lie or fail to provide the relevant detail to beleaguered communication staff. Sometimes this manipulation will not be known until much later and sometimes we may never know that this happened. It is why communicators need to ask questions, to probe and to seek clarification if they are unhappy about a line they are being given. This is not easy.’
  • Jamie Lyons and Andrew McQuillan: Johnson fights on. But for how long? (no date)
    ‘Ask almost anyone in Westminster and they will tell you the same thing. It is over. It is just a matter of dignity and time. Hours, days, weeks, maybe months. But how many times have we been told that about Boris Johnson?
  • Joe Cooper: Starmer draws line in the sand as he sets out Labour’s plan to “make Brexit work” (5 July)
    ‘With Starmer conceding that the debate is over and putting to bed any ideas that Labour would seek re-entry to the European Union, he will no doubt be hoping that this declaration blunts one of the attack lines expected to be used against him ahead of the next election.’
  • Paddy Kent: Making sense of the UK Census (1 July)
    ‘In 2011, there were 903,000 men in England over 80. The 2021 Census recorded 1.14m – that’s a whopping 24% increase. The percentage increase for women is much lower, at 8%. No doubt the retirement sector will be considering whether it can and should respond to these changes.’

Brands, content, community and creativity

Research, measurement and evaluation

Internal communication

  • Martin Flegg: Just go! (7 July)
    ‘Senior leaders who stick around after they have said they are leaving are rarely an asset for an organisation or institution. And, they are the cause of a real headache for any internal communicator if they do.’

Media, digital and technology

  • Amy Stone: Five top tips on how to secure your own broadcast coverage (no date)
  • Paul MacKenzie-Cummins: 5 mistakes to avoid when pitching the media with your latest news (5 July)
    ‘Pitching a press release is no different to pitching your business to a potential new client – you need to address the what’s-in-it-for-me factor. Journalists by their very nature are inquisitive so and so’s (I was one myself). They were that kid in school who kept putting their hand up in class to ask, “But, why?”’

Academic and education

    • Stephen Waddington: Letter from Bled: communication warfare and the COVID-19 pandemic legacy (3 July)
      ‘It’s good to be back in Bled. After a two year hiatus an international group of public relations academics and practitioners gathered on the shores of Lake Bled in Slovenia over the past two days to share their research, ideas and thinking at the 29th International Public Relations Symposium.’

Related topics

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