Is Edelman the Wal-Mart of PR Firms?
Concerning the recent “Walmarting across America” fiasco many bloggers have questions for or comments about Edelman PR.
A shel of my former self says:
Those smart PR folks working for Edelman are among the members of the PR community who advocate participation in the conversation. Some of them have been brutal when, to their way of thinking, somebody else fails to understand what it means to be engage in the conversation. So where is Edelman in this particular conversation? Missing in action.
Edelman reminds me of running journalism courses in various parts of the world. The students nod and say lots of intelligent things in the discussion, but when they go out and do their stuff, they come back with material that does the opposite of all that we talked about. This is exactly what Edelman does in the blogosphere.
Blogging is about real conversations, about authentic voices from behind the corporate wall (I know they’re there), about transparency. That will appeal to people. Pretending to be something you aren’t will not.
This post is about Edelman. I’m kind of surprised and a bit amazed quite frankly…as this is the SECOND time they’ve been outed for lack of transparency with the SAME client.
The other lesson here is about high-profile PR firms who publicly advocate for transparency and engagement. At some point, you’re going to be caught in a balancing act between a story you should be commenting on and a big-money client who doesn’t want you to say a word. Strumpette has been saying it for months to much criticism, but it’s true — there is an inherent disconnect between being a professional services organization that represents clients and open, honest communication about said clients.
First, let me say that I am a big fan of Steve Rubel, Phil Gomes, and many other Edelman folk. But, for a PR team that claims such impressive stars in its line-up, it’s been striking out big-time with the Wal-Mart account.
I think the largest private PR firm in the world – Edelman might be the Wal-Mart of PR firms. I’m surprised that Wal-Mart isn’t demanding some cost efficiencies from Edelman PR.
As Malcolm X would say, the chickens are coming home to roost — for Edelman. This PR firm represents eveything that is wrong with this industry today. They are getting their payback bigtime from Business Week, NY Times, AdAge and many other mainstream media outlets that are fed up with their thrust into the Blogosphere.