I find it rather alarming that neither candidate has responded to the memo when transparency and honesty are exactly what both campaigns could use during this process.

The public relations profession has gotten a bad rap in the past. I’m only 23, but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve told someone I work in PR and they suddenly say, “So you basically spin the news and stuff?” and I usually respond with something along the lines of, “That’s a pretty common misconception about PR – what I really do is manage the communications between organizations and their publics.” Which is pretty much a textbook definition of PR.

We’ve all read about it before, but it’s ironic that a profession where people specialize in brand management and the communication process has such a bad reputation. That being said, I don’t think it would be too far fetched for the campaigns to have received the requests and thought it was a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black. I don’t mean to imply that political PR is the reason for PR’s current reputation problems, but it’s certainly not helping.

There is still no excuse for the campaigns not to take a higher road with their communications. To say that some of the claims made by both campaigns are misleading is an understatement. I think the main reason that those claims are made is because they work – many Americans do not look into the issues and end up believing whatever the campaigns say.

So what can PR professionals do to help the process? I think we all need to demand more of ourselves and both campaigns. We should try to lead by example and be accountable for our actions. If we do, pretty soon our profession will have a solid reputation to stand on. Finally, I think we need to encourage our family and friends to look into the issues and make decisions for themselves – the easiest way to stop the bad practices employed by the campaigns is to show them they are no longer effective. The best way to do that is to start by making decisions for ourselves and to gently push our friends and loved ones to become educated about the issues.

I hope that at least one of the campaigns will take the challenge set by PRSA. It would definitely be interesting to see how the other campaign would react and be a terrific show of good faith in the judgment of the American people.