Malcom Tucker as face of the bad PR of PR

Though Malcolm Tucker, the extraordinarily abusive and hilarious creation of Armando Iannucci, who appears in the series ‘The Thick of It’ and the film ‘In The Loop’ is very entertaining, his portrayal also an interesting take on how the world of PR is perceived by society. Because criticisms of PR as a profession have often centred around the connection with propagnda and, more recently since the years of Tony Blair as Prime Minister, 'spin', it is something that we, as students of PR, should think about.

‘The Thick of It’ is a political satire – created for the purpose of entertainment - and so therefore should not perhaps be taken wholly seriously as a reflection of the inner workings of the public relations profession. However, there is such a ringing truism of how the general public (or should I say the media?) seem to perceive the profession of PR in the actions of Malcolm Tucker (played brilliantly by Peter Capaldi). An example of the character's histrionics is when the Minister (played by Rebecca Front) accidently lets slip that her department have lost immigration files in front of a freelance journalist, he yells at her, ‘It’s a f***ing newspaper office, it's not the f***ing sanatorium for the f***ing deaf.’ A link here may not be appropriate seeing as this was one of the quotes which included minimal swearing.

Comparisons have been made between the character Malcolm Tucker and the real ‘King of Spin’, Alistair Campbell, who served as Director of Communications and Strategy from 1997 to 2003. He responded in ‘The Guardian’ and, naturally, denies any true reflection of the inner workings of Downing Street. The Labour government has been plagued by accusations of spinning everything which could be spun, though there is no denying David Cameron's efforts at this particular style of public relations have been picked up by the media. This rasies questions about how successful the public relations of public relations is and how the political 'spin doctor' image has tarred the whole profession, but mainly what can be done about it.

There doesn’t seem to be much mention of Armando Iannucci's unflattering portrayal of spin in the recent PR blogs, but this image of PR should perhaps not be swept under the carpet but faced before the PR of PR itself is to be improved.