The many critics of PR tend to pick on its two extremes: the sometimes nefarious world of lobbying and the often flakey world of celebrity promotion. Yet many PR people work on public awareness campaigns for government agencies or not-for-profit organisations. Their campaigns often do good, and sometimes save lives.
The successful ‘back to sleep’ campaign is being credited with a 75% decline in SIDS – ‘cot death’ – since 1991, as reported in medical journal The Lancet. Yet the media picks up on the downside of the campaign – its relative lack of success among low income families. Will this give another crumb to the critics: a chance to characterise public relations as the elite talking to the educated, but not reaching out to the have-nots?
PR Studies 
The Press Release is Dead and Youll Hear About it From Your Favorite TV Character.
Contentious: Disclosure, Press Releases, and Life Support: Can We Pull that Plug After All?
Amy Gahran has written in the past that the press release is dead, and many, many, many PR bloggers came to disagree with her (including me). She brings up tha…