This Week in PR Ethics (1/27/22): Front Groups, Misinformation and Historical Transgressions
Mark McClennan, APR, Fellow PRSA
Mark W. McClennan, APR, Fellow PRSA, is the general manager of C+C's Boston office. C+C is a communications agency all about the good and purpose-driven brands. He has more than 20 years of tech and fintech agency experience, served as the 2016 National Chair of PRSA, drove the creation of the PRSA Ethics App and is the host of EthicalVoices.com
Lisa Gerber, the CEO of Big Leap Creative and host of Breaking Trail podcast. She discusses a number of important issues, including:
1) What do you do when you fire a client who has prepaid you?
2) Building trust through stories
3) Why telling the right story is even more important than telling a story well
Rebekah Iliff, a writer, humorist, and the founder of WriteVest, a writers’ collective focused on developing thoughtful, creative invoice, and voice driven content for brands discusses:
1) A shotgun isn’t the answer. What to do when your competitor copies your language and claims
2) Why businesses need to stick to their purpose and avoid wokewashing
3) Fighting vanity metrics
This week, Amy Coward, APR, Fellow PRSA, the President of AC Public Relations, discusses a number of ethics issues, including:
1) How to respond ethically when someone with an agenda attacks you
2) Effective ways to approach your boss to tell them they are acting unethically
3) Why you need to remember – what you allow, you condone
Andrew Healy, co-founder of Water & Wall, an award-winning marketing and communications agency, discusses a number of important ethics issues, including:
1) What to do when the story you are told just doesn’t add up
2) How to deal with content exhaustion
3) Misperceptions around financial services and ethics
Linda Recupero, the Senior Vice President and Global Head of Enterprise Communication for Assurant discusses:
1) What to do when a colleague lies
2) The evolution of ethics globally
3) The five most dangerous words in the world
Michelle Olson, the 2021 national chair of PRSA and the managing director and head of the Phoenix office for Lambert discusses a number of important ethics issues, including:
1) How to fight the constant little drips of ethical challenges we face every day
2) Transparency and the industrialization of disinformation
3) The importance of universal key messaging
Wendy Glavin, the founder of the Wendy Glavin Agency, discusses several important ethics issues, including:
1) Ethical issues of giving notice
2) What to do when you are asked to change something that is factually correct
3) Ethical failures in data use and privacy
4) Why we need to look back
Melissa Vela-Williamson, APR, an award-winning public relations expert, national columnist and host of the great Smart Talk Series podcast discusses:
1) What to do when you are pressured to inflate numbers?
2) What to do when you are faced with nearness and drinking bias
3) The ethics issues of multicultural appropriation
Laura Kempke, the Vice President of Communications for Acquia discusses several important ethics issues, including:
1) What to do when executives lie frequently?
2) Dealing with misinformation and the increasing need to take a stand
3) What can PR professionals learn from the open source community?