I’ll still call these posts “Top 5” even though I’m only doing two. I’m easing back into it, plus I want to keep things humanely brief. One of these items is something nice I saw online recently, the other item is not that.
- How do we train the next generation of communications pros?
Since I joined the PR profession after years in radio, I have always been fascinated by how people get into the business. There are many former journalists like me, who may not have had formal education in the mystical PR arts (my degree from Emerson College was in radio). I did notice that in times of bulk hiring, there were certain schools that seemed to churn out young PR pros, ready to be shaped (for better or worse) by agencies in entry-level jobs. Over the years, working with Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) groups at varying schools, I got a closer look at how these young folks were being shaped, and got to know a number of the educators (largely here in the Boston area) along the way.
One thing that intrigued me was the practical part of the education. Just as in radio, where we would produce and edit our own programs and audio projects, PR students go outside the textbooks to get a taste of the real work, practicing their skills not just in mock (or real) entrepreneurial exercises.
Even better, though, are stories like this one on students at St/ John’s University. Why do a hypothetical plan, or even a real pro bono plan for a small company, when you can instill a sense of purpose by promoting campus sustainability, or some other (ok, I’m going to say it, and not in the pejorative) social justice campaign?
New professionals do not need to go right into non-profit or other “social cause” work, but if they bring that mindset to jobs at all sorts of companies, from large corporations in any industry to startups and agencies, we will all be better off in the long term.
- It’s 10 p.m. Do you know where your ad creatives are?
My main profession has been public relations (and social media/content/SEO/etc.), but I never truly had anything against the paid media world. Occasionally, though, I have to scratch my dang head, asking how on earth a certain ad was approved. Normally, my complaint about an ad is that the creatives think far too much of their own cleverness and forget to sell the product. This was not the case with the new iPad ad from Apple.
In 1984, the “1984”-themed ad for Macintosh was legendary, depicting a new computing system that destroyed the old, rigid, “totalitarian” regime. There was no mistaking its brilliance. Now? We use skinny tech to destroy everything we love (rather than, say, using it to recreate and enhance those wonderful things instead of destroying them, which many people, I am sure, use iPads for anyway, aside from streaming “peak TV” shows that you can watch just as easily on a $100 Kindle. But that’s not the point).
Another win for PR, by default.