Values and Principles in Public Relations

Whenever I think of public relations values and principles I think of the ethics in the movie The Island. In the movie the CEO of a cloning company is meeting with his PR manager concerning two products escaping the facility. The PR guy pushes limits by telling the CEO that he will turn the day around and sell record highs. He then goes to a meeting where he tells consumers that the products remain in a vegetative state, never living. In reality the clones are very alive and have feelings and are kept underground by the company until ready to be disposed of. I think this is a great example of terrible PR ethics.

In my opinion PR values are slightly different than PR principles. The values are tings that the employer trusts you to have in and outside the company. They expect you to be honest with them and their costumers. On the other had the principles are things that have to be built. A client isn't going to automatically trust you with safeguarding confidences. You have to use your values to build the principles.

I think the hardest principle to live is the conflict of interest. No matter what if something you are working on is going to effect your life in some way it is hard not to look out for number one. This principle also includes addressing the clients conflicts as well. This is extremely difficult.

Going back to the movie example, the lead PR manager goes against personal values and the principles of PR. He also breaks laws in the movie jeopardising the companies good name all in his own interest, money.