Responsibilities of PR Professionals

Sarah Hibbert

sarahellen222@gmail.com

PR professionals have a duty to protect their clients and to maintain and narrative or image that they are trying to portray to the public about their clients. They also have an obligation to ensure steer clear of conflicts of interest. They must have a loyalty to their clients and not represent competing clients. PR professionals are required to both boost and build the reputation of their client in a positive light. 

When a client experiences an unbecoming situation or conflict then it is the job of the PR professional to guide their client and recover their reputation from negative attention. Most if not all famous people have PR professionals working for them to help their image. Often times this can achieve an image in the public that is unlike the actual person's real personality in order to maintain a positive image to the public. 

This article discusses the way that PR professionals are responsible for helping to maintain and promote their celebrity clients.

When I was watching the Taylor Swift documentary on Netflix, Taylor Swift was discussing her political beliefs to her team and discussing how she wanted to speak out about her beliefs, however, the team that worked for her stressed to her that they did not think it would be good for her image to discuss such opinions. You can see in the clip that Taylor gets very upset that they don't think she should speak out. It seems to go against her true personality to not speak out about her beliefs.

 

A Tough Job for PR

Often times there are celebrities who cannot be tamed by their PR professionals and they seem to lose their footing in front of the public with little abilities for PR to recover their image. An example of this occurring is the infamous moment when Britney Spears shaved her head and was seen in rage hitting a car with an umbrella. This is a moment that was very hard for PR to recover her image because after the public had seen it they have very negative opinions of the celebrity. 

A topic that is very talked about right now is the status of Britney's conservatorship. After this breakdown Britney's father was given the rights over her and her estate. After the mental breakdown, Britney was very closed off to public scrutiny and has remained much more private and hidden from the public. I believe this decision is in part from her team of people behind her who have decided after that incident that it is better to have her lifeless public. 

In 2007, Britney seen shaving her head and hitting a car with an umbrella. This moment would be very difficult for a PR professional to recover the image of the celebrity due to the judgment imposed by the public.