This Week in PR Takes - Week 19

Take of the Week:
This week’s Take of the Week is less of a take and more of a cautionary tale about using AI. I’ve stated before, I am pro-AI. However, auto industry expert and reporter Joe Overby wrote about the trend of AI-written pitches. There could be a future where this makes sense, but for now the material is still written in a voice screaming it’s evident that a human didn’t write it. He prompted ChatGPT to create the pitch for him, and it read eerily similar to what he was sent.

I wonder if this is the future version of the “spray and pray” that we often dismiss in the PR/media relations world. If we all agree that creating and cultivating relationships is the most important piece to media relations, this is really just going to be wasted effort that creates more noise. In turn, that noise is likely to just upset journalists even more.

I am curious to hear from others though, are you using AI to actually pitch? How are you finding it?

The Rest of the Takes:

- Dustin wrote a funny, tongue-in-cheek checklist for making an announcement (I mean, we’ve all eaten the unhealthy backup food).
- I love Sarah’s analogy about turning on the PR faucet; it’s not about turning it on moment to moment, in a sense we should keep the water running (although that might be environmentally unfriendly).
- Eliana with some “PR propaganda” she’s not falling for anymore, I couldn’t agree more re: the spray and pray model.
- Sarah Reynolds questions if the Zoom CEO using an AI avatar is beyond a PR stunt and a dereliction of duty for a leader of a public company.
- Kimberly poses a question and answer around where have all the journalists gone, and what it means for PR.
- Brandon wrote a short & sweet take on relationships vs. pitches.
- Lizzy wrote how a number of media mentions is chasing the wrong metric, if it’s not improving the business. I have written about this topic before, and couldn’t agree more. Any number of mentions is “great,” but what did they do for a business is the real question?
- Kathryn had a must-read article in Fast Company, demonstrating not only why PR isn’t dead - but it’s business critical.

That’s it for this week’s takes, thanks for reading.

-Brian

https://www.linkedin.com/in/bkramer/

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