Fabulous for the PR industry or not?

There aren’t many PR’s I know that were not tuned into the return of Absolutely Fabulous on BBC One over the holidays. Since then there have been numerous tweets and blogs circulating on whether the hilarious series is detrimental to the PR industry or not.

Well, I have watched the two episodes that have aired so far, and I am still as amused by Eddy and Patsy’s antics as ever, and not at all concerned about the impact it has had on the perception of PR (unlike Mark Borkowski).

One thing I will say is that the industry has moved on dramatically since the first Ab Fab, and although Eddy pays lip service to blogging, ‘twittering’ and everything that is ‘au courant’, she doesn’t seem to have moved past long Bolly fuelled lunches and Lacroix sweety. But that is exactly the point.

It is satire not a documentary on the world of public relations. In the real world and faltering economy, we are busier than ever providing strategic advice and analysing our clients’ campaigns for return on investment than we are taking long lunches with journalists and getting our knickers in a twist about what Ab Fab has done for the reputation of our industry – if anything it has been the best PR we have ever had!

So, I will continue to soak up Ab Fab as the unapologetic entertainment it is intended to be, and anticipate more tweets and blogs about other recently aired satires and their impact on industry reputations – Channel 4’s Hacks anyone?

Posted: 09 January 2012 by Holly McKinlay