2012 PROCEEDINGS - Public Relations Society of America

advise on the best strategy, not to blindly carry out requested tasks.‖ Although this agency
attempted to dissuade the client, another participant noted that her agency embraces the mantra
that ―the client is always right.‖ In another case, a participant discussed a supervisor who the
agency fired for ―upselling the client on something they did not want and would probably not
work‖ and then ―stringing them along‖ by lying about the results. The participant noted, ―She
should have been fired earlier.‖
Overpromising. Overpromising can occur throughout the client relationship, beginning
with the client pitch: ―I feel we overstate our capabilities in order to win business. Just because
everyone does it, doesn‘t make it right.‖ Another participant commented, ―You should never
overpromise, but it can happen in your aim to please the client.‖ He noted that in situations
where he is not confident with an immediate recommendation, he has learned to respond to the
client by stating, ―I‘m not sure. I‘ll need to explore that more to see if this (option, campaign,
tactic) will work here.‖ He added, ―Clients usually don‘t want to hear this or they are at least
surprised when they do.‖ Some participants discussed their success with keeping their agencies
from overpromising by talking with their managers:
I sometimes take issue with the way my managers change the words of my emails to the
client. …I think my managers sometimes hedge on how frank they are with the client
about a journalist‘s interest. … The last time I was concerned about the manner in which
we were presenting an opportunity to the client, I expressed my concerns to my manager
and the email was rephrased to language I felt more comfortable using.
Using the bait and switch. In addition to misleading some clients about what can be
accomplished, some clients have also been misled about which person on the account team
performs the bulk of the client work:
This is a hugely unethical practice that is very commonplace in the large agency world.
The old bait and switch with personnel assigned to a particular client. This is also a
practice that ends up costing agencies a lot of money in client turnover. Again, thinking
short term and unethically affects the bottom line in the long run.
Another participant agreed and added, ―If we assign people to that account that honestly can‘t do
the job, it‘s like we‘re intentionally misleading them. We‘re happy to take their money for a
mediocre outcome when the agreement calls for better.‖
Padding media coverage. Several participants expressed their objection to what they
referred as padding coverage:
Padding coverage happens too much. There is so much pressure to make the numbers
bigger than the year before, even if budgets have been cut. It‘s too bad, because when we
go along with this, we are watering down the field of PR by making things about
numbers of hits and impressions, not about relationships and thought leadership.
Another participant agreed: ―To me, a robot syndicating my press release is not coverage. To
become a ‗hit,‘ at the very least I think a release must pass through an editor‘s eyes.‖ One
participant explained that her agency does not count ―press release pick up or article reposts as
coverage…which can be frustrating when you compare against other agencies, or in my case, our
offices in other countries.‖
Covering up mistakes and bad news. Several participants also discussed cover-ups:
A coworker never sent the appropriate prep materials for a media opportunity that was
scheduled with the client the next day, and the client blew up, very angry, that such a
basic account management step wasn‘t executed. The client called the president of my
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