Why Now?
The need for the big conversation to which we refer can be greatly facilitated and accelerated by Communicators. The scale and urgency of things like Climate Change mean that we don’t have any time to waste. We need the very best Communications and communicators we have to ensure that together we find a way to shift to a Wellbeing Economy that places people and planet at its heart.
As Clive Hamilton observes in Growth Fetish: “Thousands of the most creative individuals in modern society… devote their lives to helping corporations manipulate people into buying more of their brand of margarine or running shoes… what a waste of talent”. Well, imagine the helpful role such talent could play if and when the new Public Engagement model fully emerges. As Lord Puttnam once observed: “I owe a lot to my early years in the advertising world. I just wish we could have put all that energy and imagination into something better than flogging cars and fags.”
The Communications company of the future must be ready to face the truths of a Wellbeing, lower consumption world – and some inconvenient truths of its own if it is to truly be Fit For Purpose.
So, as we move from Public Relations to Public Engagement, we should do so in the knowledge that the Communications company of the future must legitimately meet the demands of the conversational, multi-stakeholder, immediate, open and accountable society in which we now all live. It must be ready to face the truths of a Wellbeing, lower consumption world – and some inconvenient truths of its own if it is to truly be Fit For Purpose.
