Holmes Report Blog

The Holmes Report blog focuses on news and issues of interest to public relations professionals. Our main site can be found at www.holmesreport.com.

Friday, October 06, 2006

A License to Thrill: Harold Burson in his mid 80s is still as spry and engaged as ever, uses his opening address to talk about some of the challenges facing the industry. He has interesting things to say about the lack of any institutionalized body of knowledge and therefore of any sense of history, all of which I agree with, but his speech is likely to be remembered for his endorsement of licensing. (He didn't make an explicit call, but his discussion of the benefits and his call for the industry to look into it made it fairly clear where he stood.)

I've always opposed licensing, and had several interesting -- and occasionally heated -- chats with Ed Bernays on the subject. But Harold always opposed it to, and he's rethought his position, and that's enough to convince me it's worth thinking and talking about. Which I will do at more length in this weekend's newsletter.

3 Comments:

  • At 4:27 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    The fact that there are a few unappealing characters, and even one or two crooks, who make a good living as 'public relations consultants', provokes many of us to yearn from time to time for some form of institutional control - eg licensing.

    Whenever I get riled about this outrageous state of affairs I have a large scotch and sleep on it, usually in my chair. In the morning I have regained a normal perspective, and a headache.

    The glory of our business is that it is open to anyone with wit and energy to make their way without recourse to certificates. No-one actually has to pay any PR practitioner anything, ever, unless they choose to do so. In the Middle Ages we would have been minstrels or fools, while the lawyers would have been... well, lawyers.

    In the unlikely event that PR gets licensed during my lifetime, I will take great pleasure in hanging out a shingle saying: 'Unlicensed PR Practitioner'.

     
  • At 9:45 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I think I would have to second that previous statement.

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  • At 2:12 PM, Anonymous PENNY STOCK INVESTMENTS said…

    Excellent report

     

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