International Women’s Day: PR and Gender Imbalance

On International Women’s Day, I took a somewhat introspective look at some of the things that we do as PR people/communicators, and what we, as individuals, can do to help redress the male/female balance of power in a positive way.

The area that most stands out for me is the imagery that we supply to media (all media types, from bloggers to print quarterlies).

News stands present a visual image of the media that we, as a society, consume. Take a look at the front pages of the the magazines that adorn them.

On the front pages of the women’s magazines are airbrushed women, already beautiful but with natural flaws that make each of us individual and human removed. If these, the most beautiful amongst us are made to feel less lovely, what chance do the rest of us stand?

I have already taken a professional stand against airbrushing anything except bruises in the images I supply to the media to accompany stories. I acknowledge that for me it’s easier than, for example,   fashion PRs, but would urge other communications professionals to take a similar stand.

On the front pages of the men’s magazines are, yes, more women, often looking lustfully at the latest must have gadget or scantily clad and draped across a motorbike. I’m not sure how we go about countering this. We provide gadgets that are then used in photo shoots, and frankly if a client’s product is going to be on the front page of a magazine, I would be fired for asking them to take it off. We seem to be in an unhealthy cycle that will be extremely hard to break. The magazines use  the images because consumers buy them. Consumers buy them because they want to read about said gadgets and the images are sexy.

Maybe, just maybe, the onus lies with the photographers. Food photographers manage to create objects of desire by creating hugely desirable images, without using sex (unless, of course, Nigella’s around). But by the same token, many of these images are painted with things and totally inedible at point of shoot in order to increase the ‘lust’ factor that makes us all drool. Is airbrushing a person that different? Maybe this was a bad example.

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Influence the future of giving in the UK

Most of my clients interface with charities at some point, or at very least care vehemently about a charitable cause.

I had a note from CAF, the Charities Aid Foundation, this week that I’m sure they won’t mind me sharing here:

The Government has recently launched a  consultation on what it can do to make it easier and more rewarding for people and companies to give their time and money to charities. CAF has been championing effective ways of giving for over 80 years, so we welcome the Government’s interest in this area.

The consultation includes a broad range of suggestions and ideas. Some of these are:

• Harnessing online social media to make people’s giving more visible to others
• Allowing people to “round to the pound” when using debit or credit cards and give their “electronic change” to charity
• Recognition for donors for example through the Honours system

I’d suggest anyone interested take a look at the consultation document.

If we don’t get involved until it’s too late, it would be wrong to complain afterwards!

Related articles

• How to give a helping hand to small charities (independent.co.uk)
• 4 Social Trends Impacting the Future of Online Fundraising (mashable.com)
• Funding the future (newphilanthropycapital.wordpress.com)
• Coalition urges bank card giving (bbc.co.uk)
• Donate to charity when you use cash machine, suggests Government (independent.co.uk)

Step up to the podium, values, your time has come

Claire Thompson, Waves PR

For many years, PR messaging sessions have separated mission, vision, values and operational goals.  They all play together, but they are all very different. And the ‘proof points’ on each are very different.

As a humble communicator, it has often been hard to persuade businesses to take the ‘soft’ side of this, the values, seriously (although I often point to the RWE takeover of Thames Water where the values in action programme contributed to a valuable shareholder premium.)

Businesses have happily reflected their brand values in their logos, and the statement – maybe even the language used – on their websites. But one of the great things happening now is that people are engaging with businesses on all kinds of levels. There is an increasing recognition that businesses are made up of people – that they have a human face, rather than being monolithic entities.

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Eco Monday: Trafigura – time to come clean

Source: ethicsworld.org

This post was drafted for posting yesterday, but a lot of interest was being expressed in the #Likeminds story, so it was held back until today.

An open letter to PR consultancy Bell Pottinger

Dear Bell Pottinger,

We all use petrochemicals, and accept that, however unpleasant, the bi-products of these need disposing of.

However, quite aside of the ethics, all companies, including those like Trafigura, need to regard every part of their operations as having an effect on their PR (public relations).

Your client Trafigura is now a household name in some sectors. Their solicitors, Carter Ruck, have been put into the limelight. Harriet Harman has had her say.  The Twitter noise has died down. Has it gone as quickly as it came?  Possibly.

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