The Humblebrag and the PR Professor: A Balancing Act
The Humblebrag and the PR Professor: A Balancing Act I stumbled across a social media post the other day that sparked a lively debate. A landlord had helped a tenant facing financial hardship by waiving rent while the tenant's father was in the hospital. Sounds pretty heartwarming, right? But the comments section exploded. Many people slammed the landlord, arguing he shouldn't have publicized his good deed. Some even invoked biblical verses about charity being done in secret. The whole thing got me thinking, and it brought back a vivid memory of my PR professor in college. She had a favorite phrase, one she'd repeat almost religiously: "The core of public relations is doing good and letting people know about it." The emphasis, always, was on "letting people know about it." Initially, I was skeptical. PR, to me, felt like a synonym for manufactured sincerity, a carefully constructed facade. But my professor's words, repeated often enough ...