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> The concept of public relations is not novel or unheard of. Like at all. ... Pointing out that PR exists is like noticing there's a bright shining light in th

> The concept of public relations is not novel or unheard of. Like at all. ... Pointing out that PR exists is like noticing there's a bright shining light in the sky half of the time, it's completely devoid of insight. Many, many people have heard of PR but still believe that articles like this are written by independent, unbiased investigative journalists. The piece starts off with "At the back of my New York closet", giving you the idea that the whole thing is by Alexandra, from Alexandra's point of view, all the way to "For now, I’m happy to pretend that they’re mine." If the public could see the degree to which this experience and the words and research in this piece was spoon-fed to the author by Rent The Runway Inc, (what does that email chain actually look like?) it would be like telling them that the bright shining light in the sky the other half of the time was not a moon but a space station - absolutely mind-blowing. > I personally am aware of it because I spent 10 years as an executive at a PR firm, so I feel some ability to speak on the subject. While I appreciate your insight and would value further information on the PR industry, this disqualifies your opinion that the business you were in is not surprising.

CPLX 8y ago
I mean, it's not like that take is wrong. Articles like this actually are written by (relatively) unbiased journalists. It's not an investigative piece so that word wouldn't apply. It's the New Yorker, it's a very credible source that practices real journalism. Some outlets don't as much. But these guys have very strict ethics and fact checking requirements. True, a publicist almost certainly emailed the writers and editors a million times asking for a profile but so did literally every other company in the world, so it's not really all that dispositive. But either way, the point is every story that involves access to a person or company is to some extent managed by that person or company. Sometimes the outlet comes up with the idea, often it's pitched. But it doesn't really matter all that much which. It's up to the outlet to decide how much work they do, how oppositional they are, and what their voice is in the story. It’s up to the person/company to decide if they want to participate and how. Yes, in the abstract that process is sort of interesting. But its mere existence is not news. Imagine if a fellow HN poster came along in every thread and was like "HEY GUYS DID YOU KNOW RENT THE RUNWAY PROBABLY DOESN'T EVEN OWN THE COMPUTERS THE WEBSITE IS ON, THERE'S A THING CALLED CLOUD COMPUTING!! HERE'S A LINK TO A BLOG POST BY A POETRY PROFESSOR WHO WAS SURPRISED TO LEARN THIS FACT" for thirteen years, you might say, well sure, while this particular example could be an exception as you are offering up no knowledge of this actual website's server setup, in general for a company like this that's often true, and sure, actually yes, this concept of cloud computing is certainly interesting. But...

CPLX 8y ago

I mean, it's not like that take is wrong. Articles like this actually are written by (relatively) unbiased journalists. It's not an investigative piece so that word wouldn't apply. It's the New Yorker, it's a very credible source that practices real journalism. Some outlets don't as much. But these guys have very strict ethics and fact checking requirements. True, a publicist almost certainly emailed the writers and editors a million times asking for a profile but so did literally every other company in the world, so it's not really all that dispositive. But either way, the point is every story that involves access to a person or company is to some extent managed by that person or company. Sometimes the outlet comes up with the idea, often it's pitched. But it doesn't really matter all that much which. It's up to the outlet to decide how much work they do, how oppositional they are, and what their voice is in the story. It’s up to the person/company to decide if they want to participate and how. Yes, in the abstract that process is sort of interesting. But its mere existence is not news. Imagine if a fellow HN poster came along in every thread and was like "HEY GUYS DID YOU KNOW RENT THE RUNWAY PROBABLY DOESN'T EVEN OWN THE COMPUTERS THE WEBSITE IS ON, THERE'S A THING CALLED CLOUD COMPUTING!! HERE'S A LINK TO A BLOG POST BY A POETRY PROFESSOR WHO WAS SURPRISED TO LEARN THIS FACT" for thirteen years, you might say, well sure, while this particular example could be an exception as you are offering up no knowledge of this actual website's server setup, in general for a company like this that's often true, and sure, actually yes, this concept of cloud computing is certainly interesting. But...