Not only is it a form of art or entertainment, film is also an effectiveform of mass communication. There have been some notable movies thatinvolve the PR profession in their storylines. One of them is the Sex and theCity movies with its PR Executive character, Samantha Jones who portraysPublic Relations as a highly glamorous job. Based on the work of Dr. JaneJohnston, a professor of journalism and PR at Bond University, Sex and theCity led to a phenomenon called “The Samantha Syndrome” -- thestereotypical way that the mass media, movies and TV have portrayedfemale PR professional characters as single, middle class, attractive women,whose responsibilities are only attending events and parties, travelling, andhanging out with famous people for their work. This research was conductedto analyze the Samantha Jones character -- the source of the so-called“Samantha Syndrome” -- from an Indonesian perspective. It seeks toinvestigate the implications of Samantha Syndrome for Indonesian femalestudents of Public Relations. The results show that Samantha represents amodern woman, but, when it comes to representing women in PublicRelations, she only portrays the Public Relations profession as a glamorousand easy job. Samantha Jones constructs certain expectations for manyIndonesian female Public Relations students about Public Relations as aglamorous job, which requires only a few skills and an attractive appearance.Samantha Jones was also the reason for many of the participants’ choosingto major in Public Relations, and most of them feel like the reality that theyare going through as a Public Relations student is significantly different fromthe expectations created about Public Relations through films like Sex andthe City.

Keywords: Sex and the City, Samantha Jones, Samantha Syndrome, PublicRelations, Students.