One way to “push back” without getting into a tug o’ war, is to get management to buy into a PR strategy or a promotions strategy that has some proven tactics in it. Once you have the buy-in, it’s easier to nudge things toward fulfilling the strategy. It’s less personal, and less about you not agreeing to perform a particular task. It’s about the urgency of making the strategy succeed. The need to keep your energy focused on making the strategy work.

Of course, this doesn’t work if you trick management into agreeing to a course of action. They have to really agree with the plan.

As for the grip-and-grin photos in local papers, they don’t do any serious harm. We just have to make sure we’re not spending so much time appeasing a few egos that we don’t have time to get anything done.