I applaud the efforts of the Public Relations Society of America for attempting to arrive at a definition of PR that everyone's happy with.

But I just don't think people will understand it - "Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics."

So, here's my re-definition of it: "PR is about delivering a plan to bring together organisations and different groups of people – so that everyone benefits."

And an alternative explanation using nuts (from my blog):