The reason we like the Balloon Boy story is that it represents the one thing we can agree on as a nation. We quarrel about the legitimacy of flu fears, military queers and Glenn Beck's tears. But we join hands with all American brothers and sisters—indeed with billions of soul siblings around the world—in warm agreement on one common truth: This Richard Henne dude is a real fucking asshole.
More locally to our little communication industry, can we find unity in agreeing that this person, who made a comment on another communications website, is also an asshole?
I won't do him the favor of identifying him by name except to say he calls himself the "World's first MARKETING SOCIOLOGIST." In-apropos to the subject being discussed, he grouses:
My career plan was to go into public relations. When I started, it was REQUIRED that you have a 10 year minimum on the media side so you understood the media.
That is why public relations is dying. I was at a forum this weekend populated by hundreds of PR practitioners. Why was I the only one in the place who knew what the RACE formula was?
Most did not know what SWOT or the 4Ps of marketing were either. These are people getting $350 for their advice. I'm open for new clients at not even a fraction of that cost. …
Let us tally the obnoxiousness, the dishonesty and self-pity spilling out of those three short paragraphs:
1. It is my contention that a college-age person whose "career plan" is to go into public relations lacks (like Richard Henne) humanity and intelligence both. I mean, if you're going to do something as morally dreary as PR, why not do something that you could make some money at?
2. Are we to believe that you followed your career plan and slaved away as a journalist for a decade just so you could leap out of purgatory and into PR? And during that decade no editor explained to you that towns are "populated," while forums are "attended."
3. And how did you confirm, Mr. Former Journalist, that you were "the only one in the place" who knew what the "RACE" formula was? And did it occur to you that maybe the RACE formula—Research, Action, Communication, Evaluation—is something these pros have maybe sort of internalized by this point?
4. But you're not finished, are you, Roy G. Biv? You say that "most" of the PR peeps at this conference didn't know "SWOT" (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) or the "4ps" (Product, Price, Place, Promotion). Do you also have formulas for tying your shoes and zipping up your pants? And do you doubt my competence, because I perform those tasks on pure instinct?
5. Let's not indulge in brain teasers like, How can you charge an hourly amount that is "not even a fraction" of $350? Instead, let us ask: Who is on thinner ice than a PR man who grouses that undeserving others are getting more money than he is? PR man, public relate thyself! Oh, I forgot. You already do. You're the World's First Marketing Sociologist.
And, we hope, the world's last.
Asshole is such a strong word. Let me ask, have you written for three of the Rocky Mountain’s largest newspapers, including the largest daily in the Gannett chain. What are your credentials?
Yes, I’m calling you out on your opinions.
Richard Kelleher, M.B.A.
World’s First Marketing Sociologist
MediaRelationsExpert.com
Richard, good to hear from you.
My publication credits are here
http://writingboots.typepad.com/about.html
and you can find my samples under “Categories” on the blog.
But you haven’t called me out on any of my opinions. You’ve only continued your credential-crazy posturing.
***
WHILE I’M WRITING THIS NOTE: Richard calls, and asks who I am, and points out that my name doesn’t appear in my bio. He says he values differences of opinion and has no problem with me “calling him out.” After a polite five-minute conversation during which I invite him to continue a dialog here, we hang up.
***
Richard, tell me: Why do you think unqualified morons are getting away with charging $350 while you aren’t?
Didn’t say the person in the blog was unqualified. Yet I did attend the Film, Stage and Showbiz Expo where the keynote had no comprehension of market research and used a nebulous term I can’t remember when he meant “branding.” He admitted he gets $350 per hour and he’s a marketing “expert” in high demand.
I have a problem with employers who have “bastardized” and essentially killed public relations because they hire interns to do Twitters, as pointed out on Ragan.com, your alma mater.
These interns, who haven’t read a college PR textbook, go on to fabulous jobs at major companies while 1,000 or more journalists have been laid off in the Rocky Mountain 4-corner states in the past 2 years.
These former journalists are now serving Wendy’s and McD’s while the interns, who have never stepped inside a newsroom, are drawing six figures because they had an internship at some company.
An example is a local PR firm, we’ll call it David and Sam, has an internship program, http://www.davidandsampr.com/index.php/trainingprogram Here’s a snippet from the post, “It is unpaid,”
Almost EVERY PR firm in Phoenix utilizes interns as their major source of employees and then charges customers $100 to $500 for work interns are doing free.
These interns have no concern for RACE formula, SWOT or 4Ps. Check this story on a Phoenix PR blog. The concern is being pregnant, not furthering your skills (in truth, I follow this blog, and Touch Sledding as we discussed, to educate myself daily – Ragan, O’Dwyers – it’s about being current). http://www.valleyprblog.com/advice/pregnant-and-in-pr-planning-advice-from-the-pros/
I moan for all the more qualified people employers are passing up when they select an intern. It is ruining public relations (which these interns believe is Press Release – PR, after all that’s what they’re taught at agencies). Would you fly on a plane piloted by an intern? How about having your operation done by an intern (sure we’ve got a seasoned doctor watching the work)?
This is why I am a Marketing $ociologist. I have a track record of creating impressive wealth. Can these interns say that later in their career?
Yes, I’d like to see clients come to me and have profit rather than paying for interns to do their work!
Well, Richard, there’s certainly lots of ineffective PR that gets done. And I agree that it’s a legitimate shame that these laid-off journalists don’t have an easy road into the modern PR industry.
But looking at your website, I don’t reckon dissatisfied clients of David and Sam are going to come running to you. (In fact, when they see how much you look like Arnold Schwarzenegger, I imagine they might GO running. WTF?)
The truth is that you are NOT staying current, sir, and the more you flout RACE, SWOT and the 4Ps, the more you alienate the people who are.
If you’re having your lunch handed to you by interns, you don’t blame the interns. You’ve got to look within.
Your attitude isn’t that of a Marketing $ociologist, but rather a Marketing $ocialist.
I love the debate here. Keep it going and I’ll keep reading.
On a side note: Can I hire Richard and sick him on Amanda Vega (www.amandavega.com) and her dolt of a sidekick Tyler Hurst? They are 2 Phoenix-based under-achievers selling more hype on their “Google’d” knowledge of social media than their results. They also claim their agency is the first social media management provider. Is that like claiming you are the first Marketing Sociologist?
Example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKCdexz5RQ8&feature=player_embedded
Well, Dean, that’s another kind of obnoxiousness—the kind I usually exhaust my considerable energies trying to lampoon.
I’d like to give Amanda Vega a chance to show her stuff by doing about $30,000 of person-hours (at $350/hr of course) for Writing Boots, pro bono.
In exchange for whatever she accomplishes to make Writing Boots the success we all know it should be, I’ll help her redesign her website so that it may be read by someone other than a sharpshooter with a magnifying glass.
Richard, for the same low price, I’ll make your blog look like only a fraction as ransom-note-ish as it looks today.
http://marketingsociologist.blogspot.com/
While I probably wouldn’t have taken the “shoot first and ask questions later” approach that David did, I can’t disagree with most of his substantive comments about his reaction to Richard’s objections about how our industry is evolving.
The reality is that the world has changed. That isn’t a discussion, it’s already happened – Done deal. 25 year olds DO get big salaries to be the “Company Tweeter” now, so we can either stand around outside the sandbox wringing our hands and complaining that we [of the “older” generation of communications/PR] are ridiculously undervalued and unappreciated, or we can climb into the sandbox as it stands now and start making the new style of sand castle. Those are our choices.
I also have to say that I, too, was put off by Richard appointing himself a “sociologist”. Unless something has changed in our society, a sociologist is someone who has earned a degree in sociology at a recognized university. I see that you have an MBA, which is certainly a laudable and useful credential for public relations, but I don’t see a degree in Sociology listed. Unless you have one, it comes across as pretentious and disingenuous to give yourself that credential. If I were a credentialed sociologist [I’m not] I would be very offended by your presuming to simply adopt this title without earning it.
Ultimately, the comments I read came across as whiny and self-pitying. While probably most of us “of a certain generation” in this business have felt as you do, complaining about it is a useless activity. The best thing to do is to apply one’s talents to acclimating to the new environment and figuring out how to best the kids at their own game. It can be done, but it definitely takes a mind-set change and a willingness to embrace very different ways of doing our work.
P.S. When I followed David’s posted link to Richard’s website, I initially thought I’d landed at the wrong place. That website looks like one of those advertisement sites that I can’t click out of fast enough. The different font styles and sizes, the music files and “stuff” all over the place gave me a headache. I would not spend time sifting through everything that seems to be there to find what I was looking for. The site needs a re-design and some streamlining and organization to really reflect the intelligence and competence your comments here indicate you offer.
Thanks for this thoughtful response, Kristen.
To your main, point, “how to best the kids at their own game.”
I’ve been idly thinking as this thread has developed that in a market like this, people “of a certain age” could come together and start an agency–in every town, this could happen–called “GrownUp PR.”
You’d have to be careful about age discrimination but you could say in your marketing materials, essentially,
“Lots of PR agencies throw kids at the job. And for a lot of jobs, youthful enthusiasm and facile tech skills and fresh thinking is just the thing.
“But other times, wisdom is needed, experience is required and the long view is the only view that counts.
“Time to call in the grownups.
“Time to call in GrownUp PR.”
Or some such.
David
If I might make a slight adjustment to your pitch there David, I’d add something:
“Lots of PR agencies throw kids at the job. And for a lot of jobs, youthful enthusiasm and facile tech skills and fresh thinking is just the thing.
But other times, wisdom is needed, experience is required and the long view is the only view that counts.
We offer both – enthusiasm and fresh-thinking, enhanced and informed by that long view.”
Just a thought!
Perfect. Now Richard, you take it from here ….
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