PUBLIC RELATIONS
SIR,--Katharine Whitehorn ('Feeding the Press,' Spectator, May 27) wants to throw out the baby with the bathwater.
Of course there are PROs whose only aim is to secure free mentions of products—and there are manufacturers who insist on just that. Of course there are journalists who are too lazy to look farther- than what is handed them on a plate, or in a glass.
But surely Miss Whitehorn knows that this is not public relations. Public relations is the job of building good will between a company and everyone with whom it comes into contact: its shareholders, its employees, its neighbours, its suppliers and its customers--as well as the press: This is what all good public rela- tions men set out to do, whether they are employed by a manufacturer, by the PR department of an advertising agency, or by an independent firm.
If this is had, so is all business. And nothing—not even PR-- will promote a bad product for long.-- Yours faithfully, JAMES P. DERRIMAN J. Walter Thompson Co. Ltd., 40 Berkeley Square, W
[Katharine Whitehorn writes: 'What does Mr. Derriman suppose good will is for? UltiMately, as in '""all business, to sell products: That is not what journalism is for.'—Editor, Spectator.]
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