When the Face Fades

By PRIYABRAT

Last year, on the occasion of World Public Relations Day, I took a moment to extend warm wishes to over a hundred PR professionals I knew — people working across Public Sector Undertakings, corporate houses, and PR agencies. Many of them might not know me personally, but I knew them through my work as a journalist. I thought it was a simple, sincere gesture of goodwill and professional respect.

To my surprise, barely four or five acknowledged my message. The silence from the rest was telling — a cold, unspoken reminder that perhaps I didn’t matter to the so-called “who’s who” of the PR industry. Ironically, many of these very individuals often knock on my door when they need coverage — stories that are not always significant, but which they push with an air of entitlement. And when they get what they want, they vanish without a trace.

Just last month, I reached out multiple times to the corporate communications head of a well-known company for a simple clarification on a press release they had issued. My calls went unanswered, my messages ignored. Later, I learned from a colleague that this person responds only to Editors or those deemed “important.” This selective communication undermines the very essence of public relations — which, at its core, is about building and sustaining relationships.

There’s another category of PR professionals I’ve come to know: the transactional ones. They reach out only when they need a favour — a story published, a quote carried, a byline secured. Once their task is done, they disappear. Calls go unanswered. Messages are blue-ticked into oblivion. It’s a pattern that repeats itself — until the next need arises.

Then there’s the breed of self-promoters — individuals who wear their designations like medals, yet spend more energy doing PR for themselves than for the organisations they represent. They use their positions to secure personal media space, pushing content that’s more about self-glorification than organisational value. Worse still are those who seek to control the narrative — wanting only flattering coverage, resisting anything remotely critical, however factual it may be.

And how do they manage to keep the media on their side? Some through strategic advertisement placements. Others, sadly, through unethical favours. When gatekeeping becomes gate-opening — for the right price or connection — we risk undermining the credibility of both the press and the PR profession.

We often forget what real public relations is supposed to be. It’s not just about press releases, paid placements, or cultivating a Rolodex of high-profile contacts. It’s about trust, honesty, accessibility, and respect — values that should never go out of style.

Edward Bernays, widely considered the father of modern public relations, once said: “Public relations is the attempt, by information, persuasion and adjustment, to engineer public support for an activity, cause, movement or institution.” Nowhere in this definition is there room for ego, inaccessibility, or transactional relationships. Harold Burson, another PR pioneer, aptly noted, “PR is about performance recognition. It’s not what you say, it’s what you do that counts.”

Unfortunately, in today’s fast-paced, image-obsessed world, many PR practitioners have lost sight of these principles. They are more concerned about optics than outcomes, about impressions rather than impact.

So, this year on World Public Relations Day, I didn’t send any messages. Not because I didn’t want to — in fact, there are a few professionals I genuinely admire and respect. But silence, I’ve learned, can sometimes speak louder than words. Just like the silence I received last year.

I still believe in meaningful connections — in the power of mutual respect between journalists and PR professionals. But I also believe it’s time to call out the performative courtesies and re-centre the conversation around authenticity and ethics.

If public relations is truly the art of relationship building, then it’s time we hold that mirror up to the profession and ask: what kind of relationships are we really building?