Rob Ashwell 2.0

I come from a scientific family. My dad’s a professor in chemistry with three doctorates to his name (and that’s no exaggeration). My mother is a pharmacist and director in the NHS. My uncle is a doctor.

So I’m the black sheep (bunny) of the family. I went into PR - albeit with a BSc in genetics and a year or two of a PhD to my name.

But I am slightly worrying about us as an industry. We seem to be writing and distributing pap purely because we’re being paid to do it.

Now I’m fine with helping company V sell more of a me too product than company W. I’m delighted to help promote the real benefits of product X. And better still, to put CEO Y on stage or at a round table to debate problem Z. It just seems that, as an industry, we take a view that we’re being paid to sell one side of the story, so we will not research the other side and then engage our own ethics.

Fans of the film Thank You For Smoking, will know the paraphrased line “I’m not trying to prove I’m right, just that you’re wrong.” And when it comes to science that people are quite happy to ignore there is more than just one industry jumping on the bandwagon.

I’ve steered clear of the ethical minefield that is healthcare PR. Yet for business technology I was once asked to put out a release that loosely stated ‘this CRM technology will help you flog your drug, rather than the best drug, to the doctor.’

I don’t want that. I want a drug to be prescribed because it is right for me. If there are two identical drugs then I want the one that will not cripple the NHS.

So, it was with slight alarm that I read a recent release put out by the Health Food Manufacturer’s Association (HFMA). The HFMA has got scared about a report by an independent body and so enlisted Cliff Richard and Gloria Hunniford to help its campaign.

How is that helpful? How is that adding to the debate? For the love of God, what can they say that isn’t just ‘I’ve used supplements’ followed by a playboy girl giggle.

A better depiction of what’s happened has been given by Ben Goldacre in his Bad Science blog / the Guardian.

I do still think PR is a great industry. But, for Christ’s sake, we need to start asking more questions about why something is relevant and be willing to walk out on morally questionable clients.