P.R. and Politics

Last week the American people were faced with a political revelation not often given much consideration. 

The public relations firm Ketchum has been employed by Vladimir Putin, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama Putin, Bush, Obama & Ketchum.  This was brought to the fore after Putin published an op-ed piece in the New York Times which received far reaching notice, both here and abroad and led to government officials attributing feelings of nausea at the article.  This was met by a statement by Senator John McCain who expressed an interest in writing a rebuttal piece in a Russian newspaper the Pravda.  The access to a variety of information in Russia, however presents a stark contrast to the dissemination of ideas that McCain is more accustomed to in the U.S.  Pravda.ru http://english.pravda.ru/ is an extremely anti-American publication as such it is going to be very interesting to see just how badly this plays out for McCain and America once Pravda publishes their rebuttal to the rebuttal. 

Ketchum’s public affairs page opens with the heading “Thanks to social media and other “flattening” technologies, individual ideas can galvanize into movements. Heroes can become villains. And policy issues can capture international attention, travelling the globe practically overnight."  Ketchum has certainly successfully demonstrated that not only can heroes become villains overnight, but with the right P.R. firm a seemingly Russian villain like Putin can also be transformed into a global hero.