PoweR Girls

I went to the mtv site, and you are right. The girls look as if they have been pulled out of a modeling agency. As I think about it, there are so many thoughts that are running through my head.

First of all, it is a fact that it is still harder for women to achieve the success of a man in today’s workforce. And with shows like this coming out, it almost sets us back more. How are we supposed to be taken serious as professionals when we have the media exploiting the looks of women in our profession.

Secondly, how do you we fight it? Do you find it difficult being a women in the PR profession. What do you do to be taken seriously? Do you feel equal to your male co-workers?

I will definitely watch the show, and maybe we are judging to fast. This may turn out to be a flop idea. It may work itself out. All we can do now is wait and see how the media takes to it.

I am interested in knowing what it is like for you in the profession?

I am very interested to watch this show. I also went to the mtv website when I first saw the previews to the show and read all the girls profiles.

THey all look made up and ready to run the catwalk. What I thought is that their profiles all had things I had once considered being interested in. These girls are just girls trying to find their way into PR and I”M sure they are just eating it up that they will be working for LIzzie.

I’m wondering if it really does show the true side of PR or it is just another way to make a reality tv show? I am not sure if the show will bring out the best in public relations and I’m scared of the aftermath. I think, people will really love it and all want to be in PR, or everyone will make fun of it. SO I”m definitely looking forward to the gossip about this new show.

The question of PR professional versus publicist is bit nit-picky in my opinion.
It may however be important because some people have a negative conotation when it
comes to pulicists. What you said is very true about PR needing a PR makeover.
I don’t think the reality show is going to much for the image of PR. Also the
show will probably not depict PR very accuratly because if it did it might not
make the most interesting reality show.

The Apprentice is like the Bachlor of the business world, and I think PoweR Girls is going to be the same sort of thing. It is the fantasy world of business. I am interested to find out from people who are working in the pr field right now what they think about this show once it has aired. Only then will we know if this is the fantasy world of PR or a real look at the industry.

But I can only imagine the influx of new PR majors once the show is aired. College orientations everywhere will probably be filled with students who want real life to imitate art.

I am not looking forward to watching this show even though I know I will watch it to see what happens. I want to see how this will effect the pr world. I think people, especially men not in the industry, will start looking at our field in a different view. I can see the influx of the pr world once this show airs, but I fear it will not be for the right reasons. I do not think this show will show what the field is really like, and that will hurt the industry. I think MTV will turn the show into a sex symbol show, sort of like what The Apprentice and Survivor has turned into (my opinion of those shows). I hope that after this show airs women in the pr field will not have to live up to a new standard of being gorgeous models to get a job.

Okay, I worked in Los Angeles, and some of the people that I worked with WERE just like the stereotypes. At least she has a minority on the show - you’d be hard pressed to find that in many PR firms.

The problem with the show is going to be that MTV will do its usual hatchet edit job, and take out any scenes where the publicists actually work (and yes, there is a big enough difference that it’s not splitting hairs).

Work is hard. The tradeshow circuit is hard. The restaurant openings and club openings are hard. It’s our job to partially make it look easy, and seamless.

– MTV?s new reality series: PoweR Girls. –

Hmmm … it’s “reality television”. I can’t remember the last time I was dangling 500 feet above the Vegas strip by a bungee chord while trying to eat penguin intestines … I said I couldn’t remember; I didn’t say it didn’t happen.

– since it seems to perpetuate some of the worst stereotypes about women in PR –

Anyone that takes this show seriously enough to alter their sense of what PR people *really* do is not likely to ever work with you or employ you. I would sit back, sip on a fancy twelve-dollar latte and enjoy the show for its true value; an hour of entertainment.

Ironically, this show is a PR stunt.

I think Bill just summed up what I was thinking to myself about this show. It IS just a PR
stunt. I always wonder if reality shows are truly real, or somewhat staged (like the
Bachelorette last night). In that respect, I don’t think I would ever really believe what the
PoweR girls were doing on their show. Honestly, even though it appears to play on stereotypes
about women, it looks entertaining and I know I will try to catch every episode…but only for
entertainment. I doubt I would ever take the context of the show seriously.

I think this show will be just as much about portraying a PR person as the Real World is at portraying life in the “Real World”. Just like the Real World casts gets to stay in an amazing house and is given a cushy job (that they still complain about), I think this show will play up the glamourous side of doing club openings and doing event planning. And of course the girls will be hot, MTV isn’t dumb enough to put ugly people on its airwaves, I mean look at Real World, not to many ugly people there, MTV knows one of the pillars of marketing…Sex Sells and they have become masters of it.

This reminds me a lot of a show MTV put out a couple years ago - Sorority Life. Everyone in sororities was so afraid that it was going to reflect poorly on sororities - which it did - but it also became a hotter topic of conversation how un-true to life this sorority was. Instead of showing great friends and philanthropic activities, it showed drunken rampages inside fraternity houses. Not typical. It became a well known fact this was not a nationally-reputable organization and was seen as more of a joke. And now, the show ceases to exist.

I anticipate this PoweR Girls will have a similar shelf life. It will only call to attention the gross inaccuracies the show has with the real world, if it does have these inaccuracies, and then it will fall to the wayside. At the very least, it might even foster an interest in the PR field. And what can that hurt, really?

I read this post Monday and since there were so many comments, was not going to post one…but I’ve decided to. I went to MTV’s website and the girls of PoweR Girls look like models. Not every PR Practitioner looks like a model and in that sense, I think the show is off to a bad start in really portraying PR.

I think like most reality tv shows, this one will show a distorted view. Much of the hard PR work will probably be cut if editing for this is consistent with editing for other reality shows, especially tv shows.

While I’m eager to see the show and what it is really like, I think PR is sadly going to have to probably do a lot of work to fix its image after this.

I visited the website sometime last week and saw commercials for the show this past weekend. Both commercials only showed the PR girls planning events which is only one aspect of PR. Since the show hasn’t started I can not give my full opinion about it, but if running fashion shows and coordinating weddings are the only duties they will show it may mislead people about what PR really is. Some people already think that it is a “fluff job” the show may only reinforce these opinions.

Now I understand that showing the PR girls writing press releases, newsletters and other publications may not be exciting so these duties probably will not be seen on the show. The show may hurt PR’s image, but probably make younger people want to go into the field of PR. I am interested to see what the show will be like and will be watching to see how PR is portrayed.

Claire, I practiced PR in LA. Yep, 90 percent of the female publicists looked like models. Would have been intimidating, if I were the type to be intimidated.

But, gonna pound on this for all you students. It’s publicity - publicity is very different than PR. It’s something that is hard to explain to the lay person, but I’m sure Robert would love to dedicate a class to it one day.

I was very happy to see a show on MTV that could actually lead someone into a good career chioce that is not based on music. I enjoy watching the show and it has inspired me and helped me make a career chioce for the path that I want to follow in college. The show also shows the strees of the job and not just the good point of views.