How well do you think you know the field of public relations? Or at least, PR’s reputation? The savviest PR professionals are keenly aware of public perception, whether the focus is B2B tech, packaged consumer goods, or crisis communications.
Since public perception is often shaped by what’s said by famous leaders in business, politics, and sports, here’s a quiz to test your PR acumen.
Guess the correct public figure for each quote (answers at the end of this post) and see where you rank.
1. “Publicity is absolutely critical. A good PR story is infinitely more effective than a front page ad.”
a) Warren Buffet
b) Richard Branson
c) George Soros
d) Ron Perelman
2. “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some hire public relations officers.”
a) Walter Cronkite
b) Cokie Roberts
c) Arthur M. Schelisinger, Jr.
d) Daniel J. Boorstin
3. “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”
a) Warren Buffet
b) Richard Branson
c) George Soros
d) Ron Perelman
4. “Regardless of how you feel inside, always try to look like a winner. Even if you are behind, a sustained look of control and confidence can give you a mental edge that results in victory.”
a) Michael Jordon
b) Joe Montana
c) Tiger Woods
d) Arthur Ashe
5. “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.”
a) Margaret Thatcher
b) Bill Clinton
c) Winston Churchill
d) Franklin D. Roosevelt
6. “The caterpillar does all the work but the butterfly gets all the publicity.”
a) George Carlin
b) Tina Fey
c) Eddie Murphy
d) Ellen DeGeneres
7. “There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”
a) Mark Twain
b) Harper Lee
c) Virginia Woolf
d) Oscar Wilde
8. “The public is the only critic whose opinion is worth anything at all.”
a) Mark Twain
b) Harper Lee
c) Virginia Woolf
d) Oscar Wilde
9. “The media is the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power.”
a) Nelson Mandela
b) Malcolm X
c) Martin Luther King, Jr.
d) Mahatma Gandhi
10. “Next to doing the right thing, the most important thing is to let people know you are doing the right thing.”
a) Andrew Carnegie
b) Bill Gates
c) John D. Rockefeller
d) Mark Cuban
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7-10 correct: Master of PR. You know PR like the master of a finely tuned instrument — you know what PR is, how it works, and exactly how PR itself is perceived.
4-6 correct: PR Pro. There’s a lot to know about PR’s reputation, and you’ve got a good handle on PR’s place in the world.
1-3 correct: What’s PR again? You thought PR stood for “personal record,” and that public relations was what advertising agencies do.
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Correct answers: 1-b, 2-d, 3-a, 4-d, 5-c, 6-a, 7-d, 8-a, 9-b, 10-c.