Bulgarian Expert Maxim Behar: PR at 5 to 12

PR is a weird profession. First, it is super creative; second, it is very responsible; third, it is totally misunderstood.

PR is the most ethical and honest profession possible. If you buy a kilo of rotten apples on the market and figure this out only at home, you will come back angry, toss them at the shopkeeper, and shout at them, and that’s it. You won’t even think of involving terms such as “ethics” and “honesty” in the whole mess.

But if a PR expert decides to shut their eyes and sell — figuratively speaking — the “rotten apples” and embellish with a nice-to-read press announcement that reaches millions of people… then this entire scenario will go way beyond the local market row. That is why being sincere, ethical, and honest is the rule of the trade in this business.

On the other hand, however, Bulgaria is the only country in the world where the expression “making PR for yourself” has a connotation that is much more negative than professionally relevant.

The common opinion is that politicians make PR for themselves so that they would look brighter. The business also makes PR for itself in order to score better sales and seem more attractive… Even Showbusiness makes PR for itself by demonstrating its silicone achievements. On top of that, hundreds of strangely dressed people go around boutiques, entertainment venues, and clubs, handing out pretentious business cards with two sacred letters written under the name of the cardholder — PR.

This is Bulgaria. The beautiful, intelligent, European, emotional Bulgaria. We Bulgarians like putting all kinds of definitions on anything new that emerges around us. That’s why I won’t even mention the absurd feeling that if something features PR, it will include lies and deceptions.

To the contrary. Public relations is one of human history’s most precise, transparent, and honest kinds of business. The two words included in its name make precisely that clear — that it is totally public and transparent, based on some people’s relations with other people, or with the other people’s clients.

Deceitful, made-up, and fake news gets recognized immediately by the media, and no single PR company stands any chance of survival by relying on such an approach. All professionals understand this essential truth, which is why our profession is becoming increasingly prestigious.

Naturally, the most important reason for that is the “tsunami” of social media, and this is not because they are fast, interactive, engaging, and comprehensive but simply because they bear the most significant guarantee for their independence — they can be bought neither in theory nor in practice. They cannot be purchased by anybody, at any price.

Social media creates an excellent chance for the Public Relations business to cleanse itself from doubt that it can help some people or companies deceive society.

If a business field is based on transparency, then this in itself means that it is honest.

When some ten years ago, I wrote Bulgaria’s first “Business Ethics Standard,” which has by now been signed by thousands of firms all over the country, I went around Bulgaria to present it, and the most frequently asked question I got was, “What does business ethics mean?” Even ten years ago, it was a time when, for many people, this was a combination of two words that didn’t seem to quite match one another. My answer was straightforward and clear: making our profits transparently.

Indeed — anything that is transparent is honest, any OK business step is moral, and any fine message reaches people much faster and more precisely than what is said beating about the bush. Of course, we are in business to make a profit. But when this happens before everyone’s eyes, there is no way this can be unethical.

That is why it is already 5 to 12 for Bulgaria to understand that the PR business is, in fact, the business that warrants that transparent and honest communication in a society is the guarantee that a particular society will survive and thrive.

The interpretation of the expression “making PR for oneself” as something wrong and dishonest will soon be forgotten. However, if in these five minutes, we realize how necessary this field is right now to create a better image for Bulgaria abroad, to make the other businesses around us honest, to tell in social media how we should develop faster…, we will know all the more clearly and precisely what exactly PR stands for.

And among the thousands of definitions of this business, I have one of my own: telling the truth in a way that it will be liked. This definition contains only one keyword that we can’t do without. Truth.

The article in Bulgarian, published at the "Unfiltered" column of the Bulgarian news agency BGNES.