July 2006

SMILE WHEN YOU DO THAT, MR PRESIDENT

Smile when you do that, Mr President
Sunday July 16, 2006 The Observer
Vladimir Putin has hired a gaggle of western PRs to boost his image for the G8 presidency.

Mark Borkowski, founder of Borkowski PR, believes the Russians 'don't quite get it - they are a tenth of a second off the beat. But Putin's polishing up really well and you hope he's being trained to dodge the curveballs.'
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,1821270,00.html

Vladimir Putin has hired a gaggle of western PRs to boost his image for the G8 presidency. It's not been without its alarms, writes James Robinson

Sunday July 16, 2006 The Observer

In many ways, it is the ultimate public relations challenge: how do you repackage an autocratic east European leader with an image problem and make him palatable to a Western audience?
At the G8 summit in St Petersburg this weekend, an army of British advisers - including a former Number 10 press spokesman, the BBC's former man in Moscow and a one-time Brussels bureaucrat - are being paid to do just that for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Like their compatriots in the British press, they are staying in the Pribaltiyskaya Hotel, a huge Soviet-era building constructed in the 1970s that has breathtaking views of the Gulf of Finland. From there, guests can take a boat to the G8 venue - the Tsarist-era Konstantinovsky Palace. The city was chosen, in part, for its symbolism. It was built by Peter the Great to signify that Russia was looking westward, culturally and politically.

Until recently, the West believed Putin was taking Russia in a similar direction, but recent events have prompted some to wonder privately whether Russia should be allowed to chair the G8 - which it is doing this year for the first time - at all.

The President has responded by hiring a posse of PR professionals, including the BBC's former Moscow correspondent Angus Roxburgh and Tim Allan, who was Alastair Campbell's deputy but now runs his own PR firm. Both men would probably point out that Putin is an elected leader with a high popularity rating at home who is managing a difficult transition from post-communist chaos to an open and free society as well as can be expected. And, they might add, the task is more difficult because Russia has no history of democratic institutions on which to build.

Putin's critics - some of whom are also being advised by British publicists, including Lady Thatcher's PR man Lord Bell - argue that Russia may be on a journey towards democracy, but Putin is marching back towards authoritarianism and perhaps even totalitarianism.

As the leaders of the world's most powerful nations assemble in his home town of St Petersburg this weekend, Putin is trying to reshape his own image in the eyes of the West.

The irony is, though, that the arch-nationalist President has turned to an American PR firm, Ketchum, to co-ordinate the campaign to rebrand him. According to some reports, it is receiving £4m to advise the President's office for the duration of the G8 presidency, which ends at the end of this year.

Although they are reluctant to talk publicly about the project, they are happy with the progress so far. In the past few weeks, Putin has enthusiastically embraced the 'walkabout' and taken part in an internet chat in which he revealed a softer, more human side. He has conducted numerous interviews with foreign media outlets, with no subjects deemed off limits, using them to stress his commitment to democracy.

To top it all, he even penned an article for the Sun last Friday, complete with smiling photo byline - a device used by Tony Blair to great effect during the early years of his premiership.

The driving force behind this unprecedented display of glasnost is Dmitry Peskov, the suave, forward-thinking deputy press secretary at the Kremlin. Still in his thirties, he has responsibility for the international media, and has been trying to persuade Putin to adopt a more relaxed policy towards them for some time.

He wanted to hire a western PR agency to begin work at the start of the year, when Russia assumed the presidency of the G8, but that plan was opposed by some of the more conservative voices in government, including Peskov's boss, Putin's press secretary Alexey Gromov, a career diplomat who took up the post in 2000.

That opposition crumbled earlier this year when Ukraine's new government accused Russia of trying to undermine its 'orange revolution' by cutting off gas supplies to the former Soviet republic. Western governments claimed Russia was using its vast energy resources for political ends. 'It was at that point they realised they weren't getting their message out,' says once source close to the government. Agencies were invited to pitch, and Ketchum won the business in the spring. Its parent company, Omnicom, is one of the world's largest PR, marketing and advertising groups.

The campaign is being handled by Ketchum's Brussels-based sister company, GPlus, which was co-founded by Peter Guilford, a former civil servant at the European Commission. He in turn subcontracted the British part of the business to Portland PR, which was established by Tim Allan, Tony Blair's former deputy press secretary.

Allan, a New Labour stalwart, became head of corporate communications at BSkyB after he left politics, and has impeccable contacts in the press, particularly among the lobby correspondents with whom he used to cross swords.

If Allan and his colleagues succeed in softening Putin's image, it will go down as one of the most successful rebranding campaigns in history. But the walkabouts almost backfired when Putin kissed a young boy's naked stomach - demonstrating that even the most experienced PR practitioners cannot legislate for their client's idiosyncrasies.

Mark Borkowski, founder of Borkowski PR, believes the Russians 'don't quite get it - they are a tenth of a second off the beat. But Putin's polishing up really well and you hope he's being trained to dodge the curveballs.'

There is disagreement within the Russian government over the extent to which Putin should pander to western media organisations. One source close to the government draws a parallel with the Labour Party in 1994: 'There is the old guard, who want to live in the past, and there are the new guys, who want to change that. There is a bit of tension between the two. There are a lot of people in the administration who have a genuine understanding of and fascination for the western media, although the depth of that understanding varies.'

If the modernisers win that battle, British and American PRs are likely to be among the chief beneficiaries.

Borkowski points out that advising the President will be lucrative. 'Having Putin as a client places them at the heart of a major emerging media market. They'll be harvesting that success for years.'

Putin's media henchmen

Tim Allan

Founded Portland PR after a successful stint at BSkyB, where he was director of corporate communications. But his background is in politics. He was the Prime Minister's spokesman and spent a period as Alastair Campbell's deputy. He worked as Tony Blair's research assistant during the Labour leader's years in opposition.

Peter Guilford

A civil servant in Brussels for over a decade, Guilford is a former spokesman for the European Commission. He spoke on trade issues before being appointed deputy spokesman for former Commission president Romano Prodi. Guilford resigned in 2000 to help set up lobbying firm GPlus.

Angus Roxburgh

A journalist for 20 years, Roxburgh was a Brussels-based Europe correspondent for the BBC before joining GPlus earlier this year. He was the corporation's main Moscow correspondent for nearly six years. He is also the author of books Pravda: Inside the Soviet News Machine and The Second Russian Revolution.

Dmitry Peskov

President Putin's deputy press spokesman is a charismatic 'moderniser' who is keen to adopt western methods of dealing with the media. Charged with briefing the international press, he is becoming a familiar face at press conferences, and on British and American television. It was his decision to bring in outside PR consultants to present a professional message.

A BORKOWSKI PR RAP ON THE ZIDANE ISSUE

In years to come perhaps they’ll use Zinedine Zidane as a test question at PR school. The question would be this: How do you spin the red card that ended his career in shame so that we remember him as one of the greatest players of all time – rather than one of the biggest idiots?

It would be fun to play the game and no doubt there is someone desperately trying to spin ZZ out of his predicament as I write. But it’s hard to imagine a single thing that Materazzi could have said to him that would exonerate him.

The current theory, as I write, is that it was, to paraphrase the film director Pedro Almodovar, all about his mother – that old stand-by of Latino male culture, guaranteed to inflame every Catholic boy from Bologna to Buenos Aires. Before that the theory was that it’s something about his brother. Or perhaps something about Islam. Or something dating back to French colonial history – pied noir remains a potent insult in North Africa.

But to be honest I wouldn’t want the job of trying to save Zizou’s reputation. It would be like trying to save his hair – too late.

The best thing in a situation like this is to own up, hold up your hands, prostrate yourself before the masses and say sorry. Penitence is best. I’m tempted to feel that ZZ should keep the exact words that Materazzi uttered to himself, because whatever they were, they won’t help him. They will simply vilify Materazzi. Which in turn will make Zidane look as if he’s trying to wriggle out of his situation. By keeping silent he could maintain a smidgeon of dignity.

Besides, the ‘It’s a fair cop guv and I’m sorry’ defence is a tried and tested way back into the public’s affections. It worked for Hugh Grant when he was caught bang to rights. It’s worked for so many politicians that I’ve lost count. It always works.

The public like to see their untouchable heroes brought down to earth. We like to know they’re venal, that they have the same weaknesses as us. It makes us feel that we’re quite like them, really, even if we can’t do stopovers that leave Italian defenders floundering on the floor or chip penalties in off the crossbar.

At the moment Zidane would seem to have ruined his entire career. Right now everyone is talking about how, instead of being remembered as one of the best players of all time, he’ll only be remembered for head-butting an Italian in the chest and getting sent off in the World Cup Final.

It must feel like that to Zizou today as he wonders what on earth he must have been thinking when Materazzi muttered to him. But being despised for the Hand of God didn’t stop Maradona being voted second only to Pele in the BBC’s recent poll of football legends – ahead of our own Bobby Moore.

Talent will out. And ZZ will always be top. Check you tube for the evidence
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K4aaQTdAcQ&search=zidane

WORLD CUP FINALE

As a peace accord, you’d place about as much faith in it as a ceasefire between Israel and Palestine. It’s only a matter of time before it falls apart. And if you’ll excuse the amateur analysis of a complex situation, it all boils down to one thing – an argument over who started it first.

So while we all try to kid ourselves that Wayne accidentally trod on the Portuguese fella’s crown jewels, and it’s easy to blame the other Portuguese fella for getting his erstwhile team mate sent off, just imagine if the boot was on the other foot.

How many Portuguese newspapers think Rooney’s red card was unfair. How many Portuguese people think the foot in the bread basket was an accident? About the same as the number of Englishmen and women who would believe, say, an Argentinian or a German player for doing the same thing to Beckham.

The spin to date has been as predictable as it has been feeble. Wayne has said it was an accident and we’re all supposed to believe it. Despite his longstanding and well earned reputation for having a short fuse, and the visual evidence that his pal Ronaldo wound him up before the game even kicked off. And so it shall be written and believed for ever more – at least this side of the white cliffs of Dover.

Ronaldo, with his longstanding and well earned reputation for showing off, diving and pestering refs, has also issued his own rebuttal, saying he never told the ref to send his mate off – no, really – and that he and Wayne are best friends again – yes, really – and everything’s going to be all right when they meet up in Manchester for pre-season training and post-mortem discussions about the World Cup. Or, in Ronaldo’s case, pre-mortem, I should imagine.

Perhaps the Israelis and Palestinians should adopt the same approach to their conflict, rather than shooting and bombing each other until there’s nobody left to live in Israel/Palestine.

The end result would be the same. Nobody would believe either side.