It occurred to me recently that I’ve never written about how I got into PR in the first place. Which is odd since it’s a question I hear almost as often as “and what IS PR?” So here’s my story: I, like most of the free world, didn’t know too much about PR. I knew I liked to write but that was about it. In my third year of university, a friend recommended me to work with her doing promotions. It was for a small marketing company in Leaside and involved going to 4 or 5 bars during the night and promoting a newly released film with games and giveaways. It wasn’t something I thought I’d be good at since I can be shy, but I really liked it and quickly shed my shell in favour of acting like a fool in a public place. 

The job was perfect since it was a few nights a month and fit in with my night owl lifestyle. I’ve never been a huge partier, but I was up, so why not get paid for it? We’d start out around 9:30, and go to our scheduled bars, finishing up around 1:30 or 2. The money was good and I got to know the bar scene in Toronto. 

From there, another friend and I got involved with a bigger marketing company. We’d do more product promotions than anything and I got to go to some fun events around the city. It was great since they’d call when they had a job and I could take it or turn it down, depending on my schedule. For every job, we’d have to go into the office for training; this involved them taking us through the same confidentiality agreements and telling us about the product we would be promoting. At one such training session, the PR and Marketing people for the product sat in. The product was toothpaste. The approach was giving out coupons at movie theatres. Brilliant? Not so much. About half way through I just knew it was going to be a disaster and hoped my bosses hadn’t set the client’s expectations to high. Who wants coupons at the movies? You want to give coupons, go to the drug store, the grocery store. Moms buy toothpaste; theatre goers aren’t so concerned with their dental health at that point.

By this point, I had learned about PR and what it involved. And I knew that if these airheads could do it, I certainly could. I became determined to get into the field so that I could fire those people and do their job better. So I set about figuring out how. I talked to people, worked for a summer at a writing and design firm, investigated and applied to Humber’s PR program and was accepted. And here I am. The rest, as they say, is history.

So now I want to know- how did you get into PR? What’s your story?