Pecking Order

Public relations professionals can take comfort knowing that their bosses regard them more highly than some turkeys.

A new telephone survey by Harris Interactive concluded that business leaders at Fortune 1000 companies give high marks for the effectiveness of PR, with 84 percent saying that it raises awareness about public issues and 81 percent saying it brings attention to issues that the news media might not normally cover.

"The good news is that business leaders we surveyed realize the value that public relations brings to the decision-making table," said Judith T. Phair, president and CEO of the Public Relations Society of America, who can be assured these new statistics will end up on PR agency sales presentations everywhere. "More challenging to the public relations profession is that it shows there may be some misunderstanding about what we do and how we do it."

This "misunderstanding" stems from a lingering public distrust for PR professionals. A high percentage of those consumers surveyed (85 percent) said that public relations professionals occasionally take advantage of media by providing misleading information that favors their clients. At least a slim majority was willing to accept that PR people do try to present fair and balanced information to the public.

Harris did not include turkeys in its recent poll, although some shared their opinions directly with one PR practitioner, according to a recent Wall Street Journal article. Betsy Kosheff, a PR consultant in Western Massachusetts, found herself running for her life as 30 turkeys chased her during her jog along a back road in the Berkshires. Fortunately, she was rescued by a friend driving by in her pickup truck, but not before the turkeys forced Betsy to run several times around the vehicle. "It was like that scene in the The Birds," except there was no phone booth," she said.

Wild turkeys now number in the millions in the United States, and multiple news reports of turkey attacks suggest that some of them may be out for revenge.

There are few things on this earth more macho than male turkeys. As Toms encounter people in suburbia, they automatically assign humans a lower slot in the pecking order of the flock, and they are not afraid to demonstrate their dominance through aggressive behavior. Some communications people may be all too familiar with clients who adopt the same technique.

Naturalists who study turkeys suggest that often you need to take a "Three Stooges" approach with Toms. Slap them around a few times and don't be afraid to use a broom. They will quickly realize who is the boss.

If client relations were only that easy.