The industry is calling it the ‘sweaty-gate scandal’ – a PR agency has been struck off the PRCA (Public Relations Consultants Association) register; something so rare that the last time it happened was a decade ago. To cut a long story short, the agency placed a story in a national newspaper about a woman with a chronic sweating problem that had been virtually eradicated by one of their clients’ products. As it turned out, the woman was an agency employee, and that was not made clear. In typical headline fashion, “Woman forced to take MONTHS off work due to excessive sweating condition” was what appeared.
I’ve posted on this before, but the bottom line is that PR has changed beyond recognition in the beauty industry. The hard facts here are that sweaty-gate is not an uncommon story; this has happened for years and we all know it. The difference now is that PR agencies have evolved from small, bespoke agencies into PR supermarkets churning out substandard, cut-price PR to anyone who’ll take it. It is such a competitive market that it would not surprise me in the least if it was another agency that reported sweaty-gate. A couple of years ago, tipped off by PR who recognised her own ex-intern in the guise of a ‘fashion buyer for a high street chain’ claiming her breasts had grown a size thanks to a beauty cream, I challenged the newspaper concerned and told them that the ‘buyer’ was really a PR at the agency who repped the beauty cream. They were not at all interested (although the agency subsequently lost the account). I had the agency owner screaming down the phone asking how I could accuse her of such a dreadful thing while I had the Facebook page of the PR concerned up, clearly stating she worked in PR. The newspaper didn’t want to know. So, thousands of women may have bought that cream and really might as well have just grabbed a couple of tenners and thrown them out of the window.
If these stories tell us anything, it’s how much strain individuals in the industry are under. I know of a large high street chain that ‘persuades’ brands to leave their current agency and join one of their choosing. If you’re a small agency losing clients because brands feel they have no choice but to leave and go to the chain’s favoured agency, what chance do you have? Bigger agencies undercut and undercut to the point that they’re making virtually no profit on some brands but the brands carry enough weight they’re kept for kudos. That means junior PRs scurrying around desperately trying to service clients that don’t pay as well as the ones that do. I do not know a single PR that doesn’t feel exhausted and debilitated right now. Most of the PRs I know work more or less a double day, every day.
I have seen PRs quite literally emotionally broken by agency owners that don’t know how to say no and brands that have enormously unrealistic expectations that were never managed effectively from the beginning. But that’s the problem – for all the decent agencies that can, and do, recognise that some brands will never be happy no matter what they do, and won’t see their staff run ragged and working all the hours of the day, there are too many that will. And then they get desperate, and sweaty-gate happens.
I get invited to many events (I attend very few because you can’t run a blog/Instagram/twitter/periscope/facebook if you’re out all the time) and it’s extremely disheartening to discover that you’re only there as a tick-box exercise so the agency can prove to the client that their event was popular. What happened to events being about the products, about the relationship building? If a brand demands of the agency that there are certain people they want to turn up, and the PR can’t persuade them to go, there’s a pressure build result all the way along the line. I’m so time conscious that I have to be very selective otherwise the blog just couldn’t and wouldn’t happen, but it’s a massive indulgence on the part of brands to assume they can take a couple of hours (with a couple of hours travel time added) of my life to talk at me about how brilliant their brand is. I can work out for myself just how brilliant – or not – it is, at home. Imagine if I (or anyone else for that matter) called up the brand and asked to see them so I could talk about myself for an hour or two. Less pressure from brands to hold events for the opening of an envelope on the PRs would actually give them time to do some proper PR-ing.
So, really, sweaty-gate is just the one that got caught. But, hopefully now you can see that there’s a bigger picture behind your favourite beauty brands and how they’re presented to the people that present them to you.
Transparency Disclosure
All products are sent to me as samples from brands and agencies unless otherwise stated. Affiliate links may be used. Posts are not affiliate driven.
9 comments
oh my goodness! a friend of mine told me about when she once interned at a pr company and they asked her to take part in shoot for a press release on weight loss supplements. she’s slim so they put her photo as an ‘after shot’ and photoshopped a ‘before’ so it made her look 10 stone heavier! it was for an editorial in a well known mag who refused to publish the product unless they provided a ‘real life’ case study… it’s sad but you can’t believe everything that you read!!
Fascinating story, but sadly, one that is not at all unusual. The cut-throat mentality that you speak of is global and cuts across many industries. I will not bore you with the stories of things that I have encountered as a professional photographer. I also do some retouching on the side and nearly every day I am asked to use the magic of photoshop to make the highly questionable seem real. So let me add that not only should the consumer refuse to believe everything that she or he reads, they should also look at every editorial or PR photo with more than a little skepticism.
Thank you for your continuing honesty, Jane. It is very much appreciated.
I love these posts Jane! I’m not & never have been professionally involved in these industries but I’ve had a lifelong interest in beauty & this is all fascinating reading for a nosey old sceptic, like me! Really makes me think as a consumer & love the fact that you always provide very balanced information & viewpoints.
I love these posts (well, I love your blog in general:-)). Play I suggest another aspect of the beauty business that is quite troubling – taxation? One of the biggest beauty chain in this country, which also makes a lot of money from NHS prescriptions, apparently now pays next to no tax in this country. I’m seriously put off by that, but it is so hard to make ethical choices, when other companies, such as the online one based in the Channel Islands, are probably also benefitting from special tax status. So where do I shop, especially that we lost Sephora?
If you have more info on this please could you email me.. definitely interested in this! britishbeautyblogger@gmail.com
‘May’, not ‘play’.
You are always so insightful with your posting Jane. And, as always, you have hit the nail on the head. Full disclosure – I am in the PR profession (although not a beauty PR!) – and have been for nearly 20 years and it’s changed so much. I started working for myself 5 years ago because of all the things you write about. Being in an agency was a very emotionally damaging environment: 14-16 hour days with no thanks from your clients or your boss. Not fun. Brands and journalists are intrinsically linked in this vicious cycle. As you say, brands should pay a decent fee for the work PRs do and also have realistic expectations – I once had a client (a photocopy shop) who absolutely expected me to get them on the front cover of the FT! Insane! I tried to explain to them that this was completely unrealistic, but they wouldn’t listen. Journalists also feel under pressure to just churn out the rubbish that the big agencies send them….just because their clients advertise. PRs shouldn’t be made to lie for a “case study” story. A boss once forced me to do a property related one, many years ago, and the misery was compounded because the journalist involved deliberately misquoted me as she had decided her angle and was going to shoehorn me in to in, no matter what. It’s a vicious thing on all sides. Clients need to pay realistic money for their PR activity – PRs work HARD. PRs need to have more integrity in whom they choose to work with and for and journalists need to be open to the smaller brands and also to learn to write with integrity. I’ve made it my mission, since working for myself, to only work with people who I adore working with and brands I genuinely believe in. I don’t charge them much (as they don’t have much), but we work together in an open and honest way. I’m never going to make much money, but heck, I’ve rediscovered my love for what I do and feel fulfilled that (without working stupid hours) I am helping my small brands to grow. By the way, I stopped advising brands to do events years ago because, as you say, it became a numbers box ticking exercise. When I was younger, they were such a fun way to get to know a small handful of journalists and build proper relationships with them. Each attendee was truly valued. That’s how it should still be, but (sadly) isn’t. Sorry for the rant, but your timely email has struck a cord!
Disclosure I work in PR – travel not beauty. No excuses but the pressure the PR must have been under to agree to publicly declare how sweaty they were! What price on dignity? It would have taken one glance at Google to find out who the case study was so it’s unlikely the national newspaper who published had no idea…..who made the decision not to mention the connection in the printed article so where does the responsibility lie? The PR will always take the flack from all sides.
I’m sure you didn’t mean it like that but not ALL PR is about “churning out substandard, cut-price PR”. Like all fields there is the good, the bad, and the ugly!
I completely agree with you.. sorry if you took it that way – there are hundreds of ethical PRs doing a stellar job but I guess the post was pointing out just how much pressure there is in the industry and how it can filter through everything.