In the past couple of years I’ve spotted an increase in the phrase ‘PRs’. As in “I’m a PR” “I’m a PR in hospitality “or “I’m a PR in entertainment”, for example”. Why is that? It makes no sense, grammatically at least. Am I alone in finding it slightly annoying?
by Darren Caveney
I mean, in the broader scheme of things it doesn’t exactly keep me awake at night and there are a hell of a lot more important things to worry about. But I’m interested in why and when it crept in as a phrase.
What is a PR? – The search results
I did a PR degree 28 years ago. And it sure wasn’t knocking around then.
So I Googled – ‘What is a PR?’
You get 750 million results, none of which explain what a PR is. Now, obviously I’m telling porkies here because I only looked at the first three pages of the Google results (who looks beyond that?)
The results tell you what PR is and give a range of the definitions we are all aware of.
But nothing on being a PR.
I did have the quickest of glances at the CIPR website and couldn’t see anything there either.
Just a definition on what PR is, e.g. Public Relations is about reputation - the result of what you do, what you say and what others say about you.
So, you can’t be a PR
PR stands for public relations, obvs. And you can’t really say “I’m a public relations”. Well you could but you probably wouldn’t get much work.
But you could be:
- A PR manager
- A PR officer
- A head of PR
- A Director of PR
- A PR lead
- A PR executive
You get the jist. I’m stretching the point, I know.
But you can’t be a pr.
You wouldn’t say “I’m a marketing” now would you?
By the way, no one I know uses the term.
But it definitely has become a thing hasn’t it.
So what?
Well I’m genuinely interested in your thoughts. Do you use the phrase? Do you know anyone who does? Do you know how and where it began?
I’m ever so mindful that I could be in a tiny unpopular minority on this one.
Give me a shout on Twitter for a chat and your take.
For the record I refer to myself as a communications specialist. I mean I’m a consultant – but that word already has an identity problem all of its own! 😄
Darren Caveney is creator and owner of comms2point0 and creative communicators ltd
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Image via Vancouver Public library
