Beware of False Promises

Presently, there is a humorous  posting on You Tube of a young man attempting to bench press an undisclosed amount of weight in his basement. In it, he sets up his camera, positions himself under the weights and then begins to lift. Unfortunately, the weights prove far too heavy. Unable to place them back into their stand, the best the young man can do is slowly lower them onto his chest. What follows over the next three minutes or so is the young man trying to squirm out from under the weights. All the while he is calling for one or both of his parents to come rescue him from his predicament. He finally crawls out from under the weights uninjured but no doubt humbled.

My guess is in making the decision to film himself bench pressing the weights, he felt very confident he would have little difficulty doing so and, as a result, showcase to all who were interested his strength. To say the least, it did not work out that way. One of the lessons from this amusing tape can, I believe, be applied to practitioners of puiblic relations. It speaks to the Public Relations Society of America's code of ethics. I speak of the tenant that says practitioners should not make promises to a client they know they are in no position to guarantee. Doing so is an act of deception. In this case, the young man misled his client: himself.

It is an understandable and even easy trap to fall into. A client hires us. We believe in what them and what they stand for. Consequently, we want to do well for them and in our exuberance guarantee certain results in our promotional efforts that in reality are beyond our control.  For instance, we promise we will get the local newspaper to run a front page profile on our client's chief executive officer, Not only is that a false promise but it threatens the working relationship between the public relations professional and the client. Further, is can do harm to the reputation of the practitioner. Bottom line: those in public relations should not try to lift more than what they are capable of.