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Robert Phillips stunned the PR agency world when he walked away from his prestigious position as CEO of Edelman EMEA. Phillips explains his decision in Trust Me, PR is Dead, in which he calls for an end to the PR industry and advocates instead for a new model of public leadership (as the replacement for PR) and public value (the role of corporations which, Phillips believes, need to adopt a reinvented kind of capitalism that focuses as much on contributing to society as to their bottom lines).

Phillips came to Edelman when the agency he cofounded — Jackie Cooper PR — was acquired. While at Jackie Cooper, he was instrumental in the development of ground-breaking campaigns, including “Hello Boys” for Wonderbra.

Today he is co-founder of Jericho Chambers, which helps organizations become the kinds of organizations he believes corporations need to be — a vision he articulates in his book, which Huffington post called “Thrilling…a passionate revolution.”

FIR co-host Shel Holtz has a different perspective, which he shares in this FIR book review.

Trust Me, PR is Dead

Publisher: Unbound
Hardcover, 336 pages
Published June 18, 2015
ISBN-10: 1783520833
ISBN-13: 978-1783520831

Purchase at Amazon US (Kindle version not yet available), Amazon Canada (Kindle version not yet available), or Amazon UK (Kindle version).

About Shel Holtz

Shel Holtz, ABC (Accredited Business Communicator), is director of Internal Communications at Webcor, a commercial general contractor headquartered in San Francisco. Before joining Webcor, Shel spent 21 years as principal of Holtz Communication + Technology. In addition to integrating technology into communications strategies, his expertise includes strategic communications planning, change management, organizational culture, business initiatives and communications research. Full bio