Bawdy copy and some balderdash!

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Brand Equity, the popular supplement of India's leading financial daily has a small snippet in today's Bawdy Copy (BC) column titled 'PR Kiya Toh Darna Kya' that almost makes an individual feel bad about hiring a PR agency. I'm equally sure that this small BC piece will actually cause the PR agency that Kurup hired to be hauled up, and if you ask me, its only for doing their job well.

Lets understand one part. As much as corporates hire PR agencies, individuals too, the world over hire PR agencies. Doctors, Artists, Politicians, Actors, Authors, Creative Directors, Lawyers, and any other professional (or not) who've achieved something in their lives thinks of PR at least once in a lifetime. Its an excting proposition to see one's name in the papers after all! So, if that is true, what did Kurup do wrong?

Is it wrong for an individual to hire a PR agency? Should individuals be quiet or even covert for having hired a PR agency? Most need and use PR, including some very reputed publications and their subsidiaries. PR ends up doing what advertising cant or can enter places where advertising cant . Cant really imagine Kurup buying a quarter page of Brand Equity to advertise his creative prowess even if he managed to be convinced to cough up a few months salary for the space.

One thing can go down as advise though - an individual's PR needs to be far more subtle, far more sensitive, and one cant really go overboard when you do PR for an individual. More importantly, the individual hiring the PR agency must also keep in mind the damage the BC type perceptions can end up doing.

So much for Boo-dy Copy!

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