PR firms have long had the notion that clients are always right. That you can’t push back on them too many times in fear that the client will get sick of battling to get what they want, and fire the agency. In the case of PR giant, Burson-Marstellar, one can only assume that this is the exact practice they employed when they were tapped by social networking site Facebook to run a PR campaign shedding negative light on competitor Google’s new feature “Social Circle”.

Under this campaign, Burson-Marstellar had their Media Relations Specialists pitch negative stories about Google’s “Social Circle” and its invasion of privacy to bloggers online writing about social media trends. One blogger was pitched to by a Burson staffer on the Facebook account and took this news to USA Today, who also was pitched by Burson at one point. They then discovered that the firm was working on behalf of Facebook.

Since then, Facebook’s new PR firm has taken quite a hit in the PR industry and media news outlets, which claim that Burson essentially violated unwritten ethics codes of the Public Relations trade by pitching bloggers online content that would smear Google’s reputation. Last week Burson-Marstellar issued a statement that makes it pretty clear (at least to me) that a.) they know they screwed up, b.)  they let Facebook run the show and influence their decisions, and c.) they certainly know how to lay blame.

Since that statement, even more news has come up about Burson burying criticism of their actions.

There is a valuable lesson here for PR firms.

In this business, you can’t get carried away with vindictive and unethical ideas. Brands and the firms that help them execute such tactics are held equally responsible for their actions. In this day of ultimate transparency, PR and marketing firms are obligated to guide clients in the right direction.

In this case, Burson-Marstellar should have stood up for the industry and the fair and positive practices that so many PR pros strive to uphold.