The Power of PR

I was recently doing some reading for my gender communication class, and I came across an intriguing statement in my textbook. In Gendered Lives, Julia T. Wood states, “Advertising is very effective in convincing us that we need products to solve problems we are unaware of until some public relations campaign persuades us that something natural about us is really unnatural and unacceptable.” That really made me wonder about some things.

Would people be so afraid of aging if the public relations efforts for products like Botox and cosmetic procedures had not pervaded our society? Would individuals be so concerned with being skinny if we were not constantly hearing about the diets celebrities are using? I understand that public relations can do great things for people and companies, and it can form mutually beneficial relationships when done correctly. However, there are still many instances where the motives are questionable. Public relations practitioners have the ability to change people’s perceptions and opinions about many things, and we can only hope that they will make use of this power responsibly.