English drama ＂Public Relations＂： How to help celebrities ＂wipe their bottoms＂

For most people who eat melons, the work of public relations (PR) is both unfamiliar and familiar. On the one hand, public relations are often over-deified and demonized. In the public’s imagination, they are either behind-the-scenes traders or professional liars who turn black and white upside down; On the other hand, in today’s public opinion environment, it is difficult for ordinary people to distinguish what is news and what is soft text, and public relations are everywhere, which largely determines what information we can access, thus affecting our judgment on many public events.

Poster of public relations

The British drama Flack, which began to broadcast on Pop TV in February this year, focuses on the work and life of several female public relations companies in a top public relations company in London. Their clients are all former glamorous celebrities such as stars, talk show actors and best-selling authors, but no one knows how public relations cleaned up their mess behind the camera and helped them through one crisis after another that may end their careers.

Robin (anna paquin), the heroine, is such a "fireman" who is on standby for 24 hours. Every time she receives a call from a customer for help, she has to rush to the scene at the first time to calm the customer’s mood, discuss strategies, mobilize personnel and contact the media, so as to settle everything in the shortest time. In the first episode, chef Henderson, who has always been shown as a good husband and father, was exposed to the erotic news. Once things get too big, he will not only lose his income of 20 million pounds a year, but also puncture the fantasy of all British housewives-because almost every British housewife has a cookbook on her shelf.

Robin’s idea is to divert the media’s attention. "If you want the media to let go of this bone, you must give them better materials." Robin told Henderson that the sympathy card is always the most effective. He asked Henderson to arrange a breast cancer screening for his wife and lied to the public that his wife had found a lump in her breast. In front of the camera, they are a loving couple; After the camera, in order to persuade his wife to cooperate with the performance, Robin promised to give her a cookbook of her own within one year and arranged for her to attend a variety show of dance.

Good public relations can not only solve the crisis, but also create a topic. In the last episode, a Premier League player who is nearing the end of his sports career turned to Robin for help. He was on the verge of bankruptcy due to excessive spending and investment failure, and wanted to make a good profit before retiring. Robin once again contributed her genius. She made the straight male player pretend to be gay and come out publicly. As the "first Premier League player to come out publicly", he will be invited to various variety shows, and commercial endorsements will follow, and he will soon earn a lot of money. Ironically, at the same time, his star friend is holding a wedding, and he is in love with the marriage partner. This century wedding is also organized by Robin, and the wonderful fate of the two clients is ridiculous.

Public relations stills

As a group of "professional liars", public relations people have long been invulnerable. They should be the most thorough cynics in the contemporary era, and nothing will make them experience inner moral struggle again-except in rare cases. Robin’s two "conscience discoveries" in the play are impressive.

Once, a 17-year-old black girl named Sammo, a child prodigy of classical music, had her contract with the record company expired. She and her "Tiger Mother manager" were unwilling to fade out of the entertainment circle and wanted to take this opportunity to transform into a rebellious pop music talented woman. Robin and her colleagues came up with the idea of "scandal marketing". They arranged for Summer to shoot a sex video with a little movie star, and pretended that the cloud disk was hacked and leaked the video. Afterwards, she can issue a statement denouncing the video disseminators for invading privacy, winning the sympathy of female fans, and at the same time showing her mature and sexy side, getting rid of the image limitation of child stars and successfully transforming.

Everything was planned perfectly, but when it came to the shooting scene, Summer got stage fright. She was still a virgin who had never had sexual experience. She was auditioned everywhere by her eager mother, and she had no childhood, and she didn’t have the normal social life that a girl should have. When all the staff were in place, Summer was hiding in the toilet alone, and her mother kept threatening her. Robin finally couldn’t stand it. She decided to find a body double for Summer and told her that no one could force her to do it as long as she felt uncomfortable.

Poster of public relations

If only Robin stopped in time to avoid injury, then in the penultimate episode, Robin took the initiative to report her client to the police. In this episode, Robin accompanied his client, veteran movie star Calvin, on a business trip to new york. Before the plane took off, Calvin found that there were two messages from the police in his mobile phone, and he was forced to turn it off before he could check the contents. Calvin thus thought that not long ago, the maid at home broke his computer and sent it to be repaired privately. There were many nude photos of children in the computer (he was a pedophile himself), and the police called. He must have been reported by the technician in charge of computer maintenance.

It was a nightmare flight for Robin. Worst case, by the time they got off the plane, the news that Calvin was a pedophile had spread all over the world, and reporters were already stuck at the airport arrival, waiting for their response. Robin used his quick wits to come up with a solution for Calvin: pretend that these photos are his homework for his pedophile role in the new movie. She even found a screenwriter temporarily and began to tailor the play about pedophilia for him.

When everything was arranged, the plane landed. Calvin found that the reason why the police called him was not that he found those photos, but that his brother had an accident. After the robbery, he immediately freed himself from his remorse and began to plan a "hooking up trip" in new york. Calvin’s face disgusted Robin. She called the familiar police to report him and warned them that the phone call never happened.

Not long after, the news of Calvin’s arrest appeared on TV, and Robin tentatively asked her boss what to do. The boss told her that the company had announced the termination of Calvin’s contract and claimed that he knew nothing about it. Although it is common for people in this industry to be pushed over by have it both ways, the professional ethics is still unavoidable: under what circumstances will public relations choose to abandon customers, or even take the initiative to report customers and help customers who break the law cover up their crimes, and will public relations bear joint responsibility? If the lawyer who defends the criminal is to maintain the justice of the judicial process, what about the public relations who whitewashes the criminal?

Public relations seems to be a profession with "original sin". This drama does not whitewash this part. At the same time, it also gives the characters the ability to reflect, and retains their conscience and empathy that are not completely alienated by the profession. But back to reality, instead of imposing moral condemnation on the public relations industry, it is better to reflect on whether our social function has been completely corroded by business logic.