understanding law

What important chapters. As chapter two opens up, it is made clear that in the field of public relations, professionals need to know and understand the law in order to avoid suits.

There are two different types of speech that a corporation operates by: commercial and corporate. Commercial speech is information directed toward selling a product or service. Corporate speech is information released by a company informing the public of their political or social values or opinions. Corporate speech has many similar protections to individuals protected by the First Amendment. However, some restrictions are placed on corporate speech in because corporations have much more power than individuals and therefore could overshadow the individual. Commercial speech has less protection under the First Amendment, because this speech is designed for profit. There have been different periods since commercial speech became more protected – swerving from protecting the business to protecting the consumer. Protection for commercial speech has expanded since, and the Central Hudson test is available to advertisers wanting to remain under First Amendment protection.

Corporate speech receives much more protection that commercial speech, and as public relations professionals we should know and understand First Amendment protection so that we may avoid trouble. This is important for anyone in our industry. We don’t want to be on the front page of major publications, looking like idiots.