Brown's PR nightmare

Interesting article in the FT this morning that highlights how "Mr Brown’s allies admit it is proving impossible to shift the media off a “narrative” that his authority is shot and that Labour is heading for electoral oblivion."

It goes on to say that in light of this media narrative:

"The prime minister’s team is furious yet impotent. They point out that Alistair Darling, chancellor, and Geoff Hoon, the transport secretary, are pilloried in the press for repaying expenses claims but senior Conservatives seem to have escaped lightly. “The media have decided there is a crisis, but David Cameron and half of his front bench have had to pay back expenses – we don’t hear much about that,” said one Labour MP."

So how, as Labour media stratigist, would you deal with this?

Intriguingly the writer of this article also subscribes to this narrative:

"the vultures are circling over Mr Brown’s government. A sense of morbid despair hangs over conversations with Labour MP and ministers, their passion for politics sapped by more than a decade in power and the corrosive effect of the expenses scandal."

It's funny but for some time since Cameron came in and Blair left I've had the feeling that we're at one of those sea change moments in British politics, when the electorate has just had enough of the old and beleives that the answer is to elect in another party. It's a strange experience to see how such consensus gathers and builds in the media, starting in the world of PR and public affairs where agencies have been recruiting Tory favourites with access to Cameron's inner circle for the last few years.

The expenses scandal, however, has blown Cameron's confident Tories just as far off course, and likewise the Lib Dems, paving the way for what many are predicting will be a strong turn out for smaller parties and independents. It remains to be seen whether this sentiment still holds true when Brown finally does allow the election to take place at the very latest date possible. If he is still in the job by then, of course!

It will be interesting to see what Labour does now. They can hardly topple Brown and install a second PM 'without a mandate' in one term. They should have held the election the minute Blair left, but now their best bet must surely be to cling on and hope that Brown's new cabinet can somehow come up with some new ideas that, as Lord Falconer said on Radio 4 this morning, can demonstrate "a change of politics which doesn't require a change of leadership". This will be a very difficult job to communicate given the prevailing media picture of Brown as the bumbling and ineffective captain of an already sinking shop.

Giant green wooden horses

I've just read an article in a local magazine bemoaning the level of 'Greening' that's taking place at the moment. 'Greenworld', it says, is being forced upon us by our government like some kind of nightmare communist diktat (their words not mine).

What upsets the writer most is that many things which are supposed to be eco-friendly actually have negative environmental consequences (wind farms chopping birds, biofuels, mercury in low energy light bulbs).

While I would dispute the tone of the article and the idea that government intervention is unnecessary, the writer has stumbled on an acute truth. Compounding our problems of navigating in the green jungle is the fact that whenever the government or a corporation want to sell us an idea, they now try to pass it off as eco-friendly.

Of course, some of this can be summed up by the performance of Kevin in the last series of the Apprentice.... is it any wonder people remain confused and sceptical?
http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKL3033127420080430

I know what you're thinking, greenwash. But greenwash is an attempt to cover mal-practice through bad PR. What we are seeing are pro-active attempts by everyone to corner the green consumer market or force through unpopular measures with government backing. This is more like a phalanx of giant green wooden horses being driven through the gates of consumer democracy.

The most acute of these issues at the moment are biofuels and eco-towns. We want to keep driving everywhere the whole time because we've under invested in our countries public transport for the last 50 years and are too scared to see more fuel strikes? Biofuels will solve that. We'll wake up to no rainforest later. We want to build 3 million homes in the south east on green belt land? That's Ok, they'll be eco-towns. Forget the fact that they'll be in the middle of nowhere so there will be a dramatic increase in road traffic. You could also add poor plans by large energy companies for windfarms in marshland previously designated as sites of special scientific interest.

Since the world food crisis has deepened we have thankfully seen a bit of a turnaround in the government's attitude to the former. However, how many more projects like the Severn Barrage are gong to be forced through under new planning laws, a green mandate and heavy industry lobbying?

So, eco is being used to sell or force feed us things that are not truly sustainable. This causes massive problems for those things that really are helpful and only goes to fuel some people's perception of eco-nazis/commies going to spoil our fun. Such negative and frankly defeatist comments are popping up all over the place like mushrooms after heavy rain. While I can empathise with the feelings of the writer of - 'Spaggetti junction at the bottom of the green revolution' - this kind of tone is hardly going to improve the situation.

Here's a good article from Sian Berry about eco-towns:
http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/sian-berry/2007/06/eco-towns-brown-green-national

Hippy-crit

Just to show how much of a hypocrite I am, and highlight the confusion I face over this whole PR career idea, I've gone and pulled off a PR "stunt"myself, similar to that I bemoaned in my last post. As what I was advertisng was a non-corporate charity project which I actually beleive in, and the props were positioned on non-descript roundabouts surrounded by ugly cars, I had no problem doing it. Not everybody was happy though.

Mr Smith was critical of the box, he said: “Placing this advertising contraption on the roundabout is like waving a red rag to a bull.

“Motorists regularly mount the roundabout, destroying the road signs and even disappearing deep into the foliage.

The advertising was also criticised for bad taste by one woman who spotted it while on her way to a funeral.

The woman, who did not want to be identified, noticed a coffin-shaped box on the Six Crossroads roundabout while travelling with family members. She was shocked it had been placed on one of the busiest routes to Woking Crematorium.

From the News & Mail ---> Gallery promo Causes a Stir

The Dark Arts

One thing I've kept quiet about lately is that I'm currently trying to get a job in Political Communications, Public Affairs (i.e. lobbying), campaigns or Public Relations.

Since studying Art History - i.e the realtionship between cultural propaganda and power - I've spent a long time detesting PR and advertising, which I see as essentially interest led corporate/political propaganda that shapes the way people think, or at least interpret the world around them.

Now, the first thing that people usually say when I say this is that "people are not that stupid, you know." Quite right, but this article from De-Smog Blog has a great explanation of how this works.

So why would I want to go into this shady world?

A few reasons:
1. Know your enemy - I want to understand how this works and the best way to do that is from exprience.
2. Fight fire with fire - There are different kinds of public relations, and not all of them are bad. Every organisation needs communicators, including the ethical ones. I want to represent those causes/companies/organisations which benefit people and planet.
3. Be the change you want to see - I want to get involved with conscious communication (i.e. education) to counter act the un-conscious - not leading people by the nose but helping them think for themelves.
4. Nothing is black and white - There's people with good intentions in (almost) every company or organisation. It's important to work together to improve things rather than just complain about what other people do.
5. I wish to learn how to communicate rather than rant. It's much harder. ;)

So there you go.