Does Public Relations Need a New Name?

I love the field we’re all thriving in, public relations, but in this increasingly technological world, I’m wondering if PR could stand a name change. Something more up to date, more in tune with the times. Maybe something like Quantum Communications.

After all, we’re living with AI, quantum computing and technologies changing faster than most of us can keep up with. Communication has changed right along with them.

So why, in these ultra-high-tech AI days, are we still using the term public relations to describe our profession? Could it be starting to sound a bit dated? Old fashioned? Maybe even a little lackluster?

Think about how much the work has changed. PR today reaches into reputation, media, social platforms, content, data, technology and now AI. We’re still telling stories and trying to get people to pay attention, but where and how we do it would be almost unrecognizable to the people who helped create this profession.

Of course, PR has always changed with the times.

In its early days, campaigns relied heavily on publicity, press stunts, psychological framing and social appeals. Over time, PR moved beyond hype and promotion and developed into a recognized profession.

P. T. Barnum knew how to attract attention long before anyone called it public relations. He used theatrical hype, unusual exhibits and massive spectacles to get people talking and, more importantly, showing up.

Edward Bernays took things in a different direction. In 1929, he famously linked Lucky Strike cigarettes with women’s independence through his “Torches of Freedom” campaign during New York’s Easter Sunday Parade. It remains a fascinating, and controversial, example of just how powerful publicity and persuasion could be.

Then came campaigns that showed how those same communication skills could rally people around much bigger causes.

The March of Dimes used radio, celebrities and millions of small donations to bring Americans together in the fight against polio. During World War II, Rosie the Riveter became an enduring symbol of the effort to encourage women to take jobs in factories and other industries while men were serving overseas.

The profession has come a long way since then, but one thing hasn’t changed very much: we’re still trying to get people to notice something, understand why it matters and, sometimes, do something about it.

What has changed is just about everything around us.

Today there are more platforms, more information, more voices competing for attention and more technology between the communicator and the audience. AI is now changing how information is created, searched for, found and shared, and we’re only beginning to understand where that takes us.

Yet through all of it, we still call what we do public relations.

Maybe the name is old fashioned. Maybe it doesn't completely describe what we do anymore.

Or maybe that's okay.

After all, PR has survived a lot of changes over the years. I suspect it will survive AI too, whatever we end up calling it.