Ask Phanalphie Rhue of B&C Associates about the growing role African American-focused PR is playing within the marketing strategies of major brands and she makes it crystal clear that she's not a fan of the delineation.

"PR is PR," says Rhue, SVP of marketing and communications at the High Point, NC-based African American-owned firm. "African-American PR agencies are not an industry within the PR [sector]. We're all doing PR. We just happen to focus on a population or demographic in which ...