I’m great at writing bios for my PR clients: celebs, entertainers, lawyers, businessmen, athletes—you name it.
Not to brag, but they’re some of my finest works of fiction.
Because, in my profession, we don’t begin with “the truth.” (More often than not, “the truth” only gets in the way. Lousy reality! It’s always interfering with my creative storytelling!)
Instead, we begin with the story we want to tell.
And then we cherrypick the truthful bits and pieces of his or her bio to tell this one specific story. So, nothing in a client’s bio is actually false — you never lie — but you use reality as a springboard for storylines that’ll ring more registers.
Pinsker Law of PR #33: Clients don’t hire propagandists to publicize what the truth is. We’re hired to publicize what they wish the truth was.
It’s not my job to report reality. I’m not a documentary filmmaker; that’s not why clients pay me. Getting mad at a propagandist for inaccurately mirroring reality is kind of like getting mad at a dentist because he’s bad at carpentry: They’re different disciplines.
PR is strategic storytelling. Nothing more, nothing less.
And it’s ALWAYS driven by the beliefs, fears, and aspirations of your target audience.
This takes us to the latest Democratic freakout. Yesterday, it was gerrymandering; today, it’s the dreaded return of the most diabolical, meanspirited political attack of our era: the GOP’s “they/them” ads.
(Gasp!)
CNN issued the ominous warning yesterday: “Republicans reprise anti-transgender ‘Kamala is for they/them’ ads for the midterms.”
Why, how dare those Republicans double-down on a successful political campaign! That’s not fair.
Hellbound and Down 