We've found that there's a bandwagon effect to PR whereby competitors of our clients jump on it when they see their rivals generating the 'column inches'.
I don't think any amount of opinion forming defending PR's value will turn significant heads and income our way.
I prefer to look at how PR and marketing (they can't be viewed alone) affects mainstream society and how it's made the world so aspirational.
Jack Johnson sprung the saying 'You need aspiration if you want to really achieve greatness in this world'.
I wonder whether Jack would have said that today? The 'wannabe' phenomenon seems to have almost made aspiration a negative word.
You could argue in the consumer world that this can be seen at its most extreme in cars...i.e. why are there so many Ford Fiestas with tinted windows? Also, why are too many people wearing sunglasses in shops and cafes in Liverpool? Exactly who do they think is looking at them?
Defenders will say that 'everybody wants a piece of celeb lifestyle (darling)'. I can deal with that I suppose because it does show the power of consumer pr and marketing better than anyone in our industry trying to defend the dark arts.
However, I am struggling since the onset of Dragon's Den and The Apprentice with the crossover of wannabe culture into business.
First everybody wanted to be on X-factor and look like Katie Price or Beckham, now they want to be Alan Sugar or Duncan Bannatyne. And again, you only need to look at PR and marketing as to why.
Liverpool is now swamped with wannabe marketers in all their forms. The issue is also apparent in leisure and tourism, I suppose because people think 'its easy'. Licensed & leisure for example, is one of the most competitive sectors in which to make it...read Danny Meyer if you're thinking of 'having a go.'
It's not the threat of competition that irritates us in the PR business. It's everything to do with our passion for the industry in getting it right for clients and the effect the 'w' word has on the industry. Far be it from me then to defend PR, but more to ask businesses to be weary in trying to sort the wheat from the wannabe.

Joel Jelen is managing director of Ubiquity PR in Liverpool