I’ve just been reading in PR Week how three big names in the PR industry this week became the ‘recipients’ of the kind of PR stunt they’re usually involved in planning and executing.

Ogilvy, Lexis PR and JCPR were, I would imagine, slightly taken aback when an orang-utang dropped in to each of their London headquarters.

Now no one really relishes an unannounced visit from a client, but the furry orange visitor was not actually a client of any of the agencies. He (I am making gender assumptions here) was part of a publicity stunt organised by Greenpeace.

The orang-utang was sent to each of the offices to deliver a letter, which called on the agencies to put pressure on one of their clients – Unilever – to change some of its business practices.

Greenpeace is unhappy with Unilever’s choice of suppliers who, it claims, are responsible for the continued destruction of the Indonesian rainforest.

Mariana Paoli, a campaigner for Greenpeace was reported in the PR Week article as saying:

“…Being socially and environmentally responsible should be an issue for leading PR companies, just as it has become for so many of their clients.”

While I agree with this statement, let’s not limit it to the ‘big players’. Small PR agencies working with small businesses have the exact same responsibility, I would argue. A small business is equally as capable of making a bad decision about the impact its activities have on the environment. Don’t we small PR agencies have exactly the same responsibility as our larger counterparts?

I certainly think so.

And I think the Chartered Institute of Public Relations agrees with me. I don’t recall seeing anything in their recently issued ‘environmental sustainability communications’ (green PR) guidelines differentiating the responsibilities of the big PR agencies from those of the small or micro-agencies.

Right, time to put the kettle on. I’ve got a monkey coming for tea.

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