Alison Taylor, Chief Executive Officer:

• Spin-doctor versus public relations expert 
• Greenwashing plays on ignorance 
• Transparency always wins 

For as long as our industry has existed, the behaviour of career-propagandists has chipped away at its professional reputation. These spin-doctors have earned their livings embellishing, misleading and manipulating facts to paint a rosy picture of their cause, clients or products. There is even a long string of A List celebrity movies based on true-life publicists from the political world.

Luckily, I have personally seldom been close to this side of the industry, but this doesn’t mean I’m immune to the ‘long lunch’ and ‘PR-girls’ vernacular that has tarnished our profession. Even Google lumps ‘spin-doctor’ and ‘public relations expert’ together.  

Recently I was asked if our team would help a potential client ‘spin’ a story and put a fake shine on something dark. The issue they were trying to disguise was one of gender inequality and, of course, we said no. We don’t ‘spin’ stories and we don’t support the promotion of inequality of any sort. But, there are still plenty of agencies that will, especially for the right price. Sure enough, I soon read the story that had originated from that source – they had clearly found an agency willing to do the deed.

This century has seen the rise of greenwashing, or environmental spin, which is as abhorrent as any other baseless propaganda, and plays on people’s ignorance or apathy to misguide their understanding.

It can be difficult for even a seasoned eye to distinguish greenwashing from genuine purpose driven marketing. You really have to know your way around the complex science and reporting systems to identify if data is distorted and claims inflated. Common sense tells us that if it seems too good to be true, it usually is, but it’s still easy to be blinded by the science.  

Deflection is another greenwash strategy that has landed many a big brand in trouble – think McDonalds and its ‘net zero carbon restaurant’ launched in 2021, deflecting attention from the impact of meat and dairy consumption, and BP’s ‘investment in green energy’ as fuel prices rose in 2022. 

Social media has come into its own here. Woe betide the foolhardy organisation that spreads misleading claims via social channels – the experts are there, ready and waiting to shout them out! One inflated statement is all it takes for the real environmental specialists to descend with a torrent of critical comments and questions. Even if, and when, the environmentalists argue among themselves about what the data actually means, as a bystander you can absorb considerable knowledge. The most valuable of which is to always, always be truthful, open and transparent with the facts, otherwise, sooner or later, you’ll be ‘outed’.