A Different View of the Entertainment Industry

One area of PR that I have never been particularly drawn to but seems to be the most popular is the entertainment side. With that said, I definitely did not have trouble trying to find two blog posts that were discussing similar topics. I came across two very interesting, but very different blogs discussing the entertainment industry, and how research results are used in two different ways.

The first blog I came across was written by Blaine this blog discussed the entertainment industry and how the media feeds off of research results. Blaine stated that the audience’s feedback was essential to determine the direction the industry may take something, but they can take this opinion into consideration, spin it, or just ignore it completely. These statements were followed by an excellent example of how the creator of “The Hills” basically spun the audience’s feedback of the show and completely caught them off guard. Everyone basically believed the show was real, but when the finale aired the creators proved it to be fake all along. I feel this was a great example of how Hollywood manipulates the public, but leading them on and always keeping them on their toes.

The second blog I came across was by slapin, it also discussed the entertainment industry and how the public can effect what direction the industry takes for their entertainment. This blog really focused on how the public influences how the entertainment industry works. They are going for that “shock” factor, everyone wants to see the most gruesome thing, or which celebrity is doing what drugs, or who’s going into rehab. All of these things aren’t good for society, but it makes for great television, and some may say great entertainment.

Both blogs discuss the entertainment industry and how the public can influence what direction they will take to make for the best ratings. Blaine’s blog discusses how the industry can turn on you in a second, making you think one thing but going a completely opposite direction just to get the ratings. Slapin’s blog talks about how the industry will do anything for ratings, even if it is bad for society. It’s not all that shocking to me that this industry will do anything for ratings, but it is wrong. It’s a very cutthroat industry that will deceive their publics, and even lead them down the wrong paths, but for some reason we all love it. 

False Advertising of Pharmaceutical Research?

Throughout the fall semester I am taking very similar courses, PR Writing, PR Research, and Intro to Marketing. I find it very interesting how similar all three courses are, for instance over the past two weeks each class has discussed research, and the ethical way to conduct your research.

This past week I was doing some research about how advertisers use their research, and everything I came across had to do with ethical advertising and using your research properly. In this article about evidence-based advertising they discuss how pharmaceutical advertising could be very misleading. In short these advertisements are used to bring information to physicians about the drug’s information. 

Most advertisements are to bring awareness to the public, but there are some that want to persuade the physician or user through their research findings. This lead researches to question the quality of these findings, and whether these advertisements led to improper prescriptions.

After the research in pharmaceutical advertisements, they found that most were brief, incomplete, and they inconsistently provided the basic design and statistical information needed to judge the results reported. If there had been more details in the advertisements it would have been more helpful to the reader. (J AmBoard Fam Pract 2001;14:197–200.)

All of these articles surprised me very much. The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) seems to have a tight hold on drug companies, but obviously do not have a tight hold on the types of advertisements they are running. After doing a little more research into drug advertising, I found and the Food and Drug Administration website that says the FDA does not have to review all drug advertisements. It also states that the FDA in most cases sees these advertisements at the same time as the general public sees it.

This type of advertising is very misleading to any consumer. If pharmaceutical advertisers are leaving out crucial information that could harm a user, they are not doing their jobs correctly. These scenarios given in these articles are prime examples that we could be taking the wrong medication, or even being improperly prescribed medication just because the advertiser is not giving full research results.

This goes right along with ethics, and deception. We are taught as PR professionals to try and be as ethical as possible and we are also told not to deceive our consumers or participants. Leaving out information that can be harmful to users in the pharmaceutical world is deceiving your costumer. After reading these article I am beginning to see why it is so important disclose all of your research information, no matter what you are researching; because let’s face it, no one wants to be mislead, and no one wants to be tricked.

Are Advertiser’s Sending the Wrong Message?

In today’s world everyone wants his or her own unique product or idea to be noticed.  We’re all looking for that perfect “get rich quick” scheme, and quite frankly it seems to be clouding consumer’s heads when trying to buy a product or service. Being ethical while conducting research and advertising a product, person or service, may prove to be a tough challenge, but it should be something every professional strives for.

I recently read an article that talked about the poor ethics that some company’s had while advertising their products. I related so much to this article because there have been instances where I have fallen into the trap of unethical or false advertising. It briefly discusses disclaimers on medicine saying “When a medication is helpful, does that mean one per cent of the time or ninety percent of the time?” This part falls directly into the ethics of research. The company should know how helpful this medication is, and it is unethical not to say exactly what their data told them. As we read in chapter 33 in our “Advertising and Public Relations Research” textbook, you must disclose all your information even if it puts a negative spin on the product you are trying to sell.

Another prime example I came across was one with skin care products. This article says that most skin care products are filled with false claims. If this skin care company was ethical they would make sure all of their research results were accurate, and then they would accurately get that information to the public. However this is never the case, and many companies will do whatever it takes to sell their product. 

A New Found Focus...

           Deciding to get my bachelors degree in Public Relations was not a hard decision to make for myself during my sophomore year at QU. Everything moved so quickly, I took an introduction class, a few weeks later decided to make PR my major, and now I’m blogging about a possible career path to take when I graduate in less than two short years.

            Just like my decision to go into PR, my decision on what to write about for my PR Research class was just as simple. I had decided to write about Advertising and Public Relations, and how they are intertwined.

            I came to this decision for many reasons, but the main one was that I interned for a local New Jersey radio station in their promotions department, which had to do with a lot of PR and marketing. After that internship, I had decided that this could be something that I would want to pursue as a career.

            Over the course of this blog I want to try and explore the ins and outs of PR and Advertising, how they are alike and how they are different, and the different struggles that come out of combining the two.  Over the course of this blog I would like to talk about the many types of research that goes into the advertising side of PR, and how much it actually differs from public relations. These next eleven weeks should teach me a lot…