Stop spinning - we're all feeling a bit sick
The centre of everything; politics, corporations and showbusiness, is PR. And if like me, you're a big fan of The Thick Of It and House of Cards, you'll know the dangerous nature of spin. The reason they're busier than a 'tart with two twats' is because they spend all their time being liberal with the truth and manipulating nearly everyone.
To work in PR, you need to be ruthless and sharp. You need to react to situations like an army general in battle. When questioned by pesky journalists about a company's unethical practices or a politician's dubious stances or a celebrity's latest indiscretions, you need to have a prepared answer. One that does nothing but protect the 'brand'.
As PR is the frontline, we never get a true picture of what's going on. We never know the truth. We're expected to believe that Beyonce's pregnancy was real, that Tom Cruise is straight and George Clooney's marriage to Amal isn't a mutually beneficial arrangement.
Publicists work hard to quash stories in the press, remove evidence from the internet and counteract trolls.
In celebrity-dom, it's fine. They're lying to their fans in order to safeguard their reputation. In an industry where you're only as good as your last film, you need to stay current, stay leading and stay likeable. That's why we're bombarded with organised 'pap sightings', naked Instagram photos and red carpet antics.
The dark arts get darker when they're playing in politics and corporates. They go out of their way to protect the company when their ethics are brought into question.
Spin a terrible story from Nestle putting high levels of lead in India's best selling Maggi noddles to Nestle destroying 27,000 tonnes of noodles. During a food shortage. In a poverty stricken country. It's a difficult one to spin, but the headline:
Reads better than:
The first makes you almost feel sorry for them, having to lose all the money and produce. The operation that goes behind destroying all those noodles. They have many facts and figures about the destruction of Maggi noodles. Boo hoo Nestle. Boo bloody hoo. Can you find anything about how much lead was put in the noodles or the victims affected by it or how much is consumed or what the side effects are? Can you hell.
This is when PR is dangerous. Nestle should be opened up to scrutiny. People should know about their malpractices, created only to boost profit margins. They should be held accountable to us, the consumer. And we should know what we're eating, not blindly trusting corporates because we think that they wouldn't get away with it. They do, because they hide behind the skirts of their PR department.
They don't rely only on their own PR. They use these huge profits to buy politicians and control legislation so it benefits their... you guessed it, profits. Our legal system, that according to Magna Carta is here to protect our human rights, is for sale to the highest bidder.
The reason we don't know about it is because PR spins it so it looks constitutionally beneficial or hides it completely. Working really hard to keep it out of the news. Schmoozing editors, dandling advertising spend as a carrot to control them and putting out other stories (possibly negative ones) to detract from the story we need to hear about.
PR is detrimental to free press. Journalists are no longer investigating as they're handed stories on a plate that they then unquestioningly print. PR is also detrimental to free speech, as journalists are being gagged by money and power. And PR is detrimental to society, as we're treated like mushrooms - kept in the dark and fed shit.
First published 22/06/2015
To work in PR, you need to be ruthless and sharp. You need to react to situations like an army general in battle. When questioned by pesky journalists about a company's unethical practices or a politician's dubious stances or a celebrity's latest indiscretions, you need to have a prepared answer. One that does nothing but protect the 'brand'.
As PR is the frontline, we never get a true picture of what's going on. We never know the truth. We're expected to believe that Beyonce's pregnancy was real, that Tom Cruise is straight and George Clooney's marriage to Amal isn't a mutually beneficial arrangement.
Publicists work hard to quash stories in the press, remove evidence from the internet and counteract trolls.
In celebrity-dom, it's fine. They're lying to their fans in order to safeguard their reputation. In an industry where you're only as good as your last film, you need to stay current, stay leading and stay likeable. That's why we're bombarded with organised 'pap sightings', naked Instagram photos and red carpet antics.
The dark arts get darker when they're playing in politics and corporates. They go out of their way to protect the company when their ethics are brought into question.
Spin a terrible story from Nestle putting high levels of lead in India's best selling Maggi noddles to Nestle destroying 27,000 tonnes of noodles. During a food shortage. In a poverty stricken country. It's a difficult one to spin, but the headline:
Nestle destroys £32 million worth of noodles
Reads better than:
Nestle's noodles poison India's poorest
The first makes you almost feel sorry for them, having to lose all the money and produce. The operation that goes behind destroying all those noodles. They have many facts and figures about the destruction of Maggi noodles. Boo hoo Nestle. Boo bloody hoo. Can you find anything about how much lead was put in the noodles or the victims affected by it or how much is consumed or what the side effects are? Can you hell.
This is when PR is dangerous. Nestle should be opened up to scrutiny. People should know about their malpractices, created only to boost profit margins. They should be held accountable to us, the consumer. And we should know what we're eating, not blindly trusting corporates because we think that they wouldn't get away with it. They do, because they hide behind the skirts of their PR department.
They don't rely only on their own PR. They use these huge profits to buy politicians and control legislation so it benefits their... you guessed it, profits. Our legal system, that according to Magna Carta is here to protect our human rights, is for sale to the highest bidder.
"When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators." PJ O'Rourke
The reason we don't know about it is because PR spins it so it looks constitutionally beneficial or hides it completely. Working really hard to keep it out of the news. Schmoozing editors, dandling advertising spend as a carrot to control them and putting out other stories (possibly negative ones) to detract from the story we need to hear about.
PR is detrimental to free press. Journalists are no longer investigating as they're handed stories on a plate that they then unquestioningly print. PR is also detrimental to free speech, as journalists are being gagged by money and power. And PR is detrimental to society, as we're treated like mushrooms - kept in the dark and fed shit.
First published 22/06/2015
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