A recent cover of PR Week announced that our industry is still fighting against the stereotype established all those years ago by Ab Fab. Why is it that we haven’t managed to overthrow the generalisation of a show that left the box an age ago?

The mystique surrounding the PR industry is something that I (and a number of my colleagues) struggle with on a daily basis. My relatives still can’t quite place the industry or distinguish it from the realms of marketing, advertising and journalism. Friends can’t quite grasp why my name isn’t published on the bottom of an opinion article or referenced in an interview I secured and attended.

What I try to explain is that a proactive PR campaign is all about the client and there is only one clear goal - to achieve that essential “noise” that ushers potential customers to a web site or prompts a priceless sales call. It doesn’t matter that the PR exec works tirelessly behind the scenes and perhaps that’s why the industry hasn’t been able to prove its worth to a wider audience: it’s actually quite happy to keep quiet about itself so long as it’s making noise about others.

Rebecca Wheeler