Ode to Brassica

PR lessons can come from the strangest places. Now, I’m not going to create a laundry list, but as I was cooking dinner last night, the broccoli florets that I was steaming looked me square in the face and said: “Is your PR as good as we are?”

At first glance, broccoli’s a pretty unprepossessing vegetable. Its scientific name, brassica oleracea, is enough to give one hiccups. It’s not elegant or neat, like asparagus. And its color, while not unpleasing, doesn’t exactly shout out for attention, like that of a tomato.

Yet broccoli’s one of the most popular vegetables in the world today. Why? Because it’s easy to cook and is packed full of nutrients. You don’t have to do much to broccoli to derive its benefits. It’s not hard to find, deeply satisfying and delivers its goods quickly and directly. Broccoli simply – is.

Good PR’s much like broccoli.

Think about it. Good PR doesn’t get lost in semantics, and can work without the bells and whistles we so often want to dress it up in. It focuses on measurable objectives and outcomes, rather than hiding behind outputs. And it adapts to the changing needs, and technologies, of our times.

With new buzz words and phrases being born every day, perhaps it’s time to go back to the basics, and remember what PR is really about, and what takes it from average to good or, even better, great.

So, is your PR better than broccoli?