Week 5 - Legal issues and Ethics

I think the key points to remember from this week's readings is that in PR, we are part of the media industry and there are many legal implications. Publishing false information or slandering another party in our PR campaigns will no doubt have a huge impact. We can see that from MacDonald's case that winning the legal case does not necessarily mean the winning of the PR war.

Also, in the case of legal and ethical considerations, in my research for my assignment, i came across a case where a law firm, Holland & Hart, has successfully marketed itself via PR strategy, while adhering to a multitude of ethical restrictions and considerations. A few of the considerations were that a Public Relations campaign cannot use superlative words, or models, actors or actresses posing to be lawyers in any of their advertisements, and “no testimonials”.

I think this is crucial to a company whether they are honest with their public, if they are giving accurate information instead of misleading people. Honesty would contribute to a company’s image as an trustworthy company. The result would be a public that is receptive to the PR campaigns and tactics of the company.

Building bridges and alliances with different publics are part of public relations and advocating and adhering to ethics, is one of the roles that PR practitioners should follow at all times possible (Johnston & Zawawi, 2004). From the article, it is possible to deduce that the more ethical a PR campaign, the more popular it is with the public and the company’s clients.

The reading made me think more about how as a PR practitioner, i must appear to be honest, sincere, and trustworthy. Any actions on my apart that casts a shadow over this values, will inevitably lead to a loss of reputation, and clients. In a broader context, it can also be said that if a client associates with me, my reputation will definitely have an influence on his image. If I (my PR company) is known to be honest, reliable, and trustworthy, this image will be perceived of my client company.

That means I should have my own ethical stands, and not associate with companies of bad repute, unless they are proven that they have changed and need my help to change and improve their corporate image.