I'm giving up on PR

I was just reading in PR Week about the 'Barcelona Declaration of Research Principles', the first global standard of PR measurement, that has been created at the second European Summit on Measurement.

Leave it to the PR industry to slap on an official sounding title for what is, essentially, a pile of shit.

The Barcelona Declaration of Research Principles. The Treaty of Versailles. The WTO Doha Round.

With a name like that I expect a lot was accomplished. But instead we get meaningless PR bullshit of the highest order:

1. Goal setting and measurement are fundamental aspects of any PR programmes. < No fucking shit asshole.
2. Media measurement requires quantity and quality - clip cuts are generally meaningless. < Qualitative and quantitative measurement? Groundbreaking.
3. Advertising Value Equivalents (AVEs) do not measure the value of PR and do not inform future activity; they measure the cost of media space. < Yes. Everyone has known this. For decades.
4. Social media can and should be measured. < FFS
5. Measuring outcomes is preferred to measuring media results. < Preferred. But we can't always measure outcomes, so lets just fall back on media results.
6. Business results can and should be measured where possible. < ‘Can’ and ‘where possible’. Vaaaaaaaaaaaaaaague.
7. Transparency and replicability are paramount to sound measurement. < You must be able to replicate how many times you called a journalist to ask if they received your email.

We’re told that this "is the first step towards creating a worldwide agreement on how the impact of PR can be measured." Here's a thought? Why not skip this first step of principles, and use the 3-day jolly in Barcelona to fucking get on with it.

My favourite bit is that these "principles will now be tweaked until a final version is published in mid July." One month to tweak 7 sentences?

Bravo PR, you've outdone yourself with FAIL this time.

So on that note, I think I'm done with PR for a little while.

I'm still around, but I need to spread my wings and see what else is out there. Might change direction and head towards Adland where the chicks are equally fucking hot, budgets are bigger and staff are even less clued up on social media than PRs.