PR Isn’t A Mask

Cambridge Analytica As Chameleon

by Paul Grimsley

Set up a target and let someone knock it down and think that they have won. Move yourself somewhere else and set up shop with a new mask firmly affixed in place, and what? Play the same old game again?

Some might care to call it reinvention. Some might prefer to think of it as being a moving target. Some might think of it more as a shell game. Is it honest or dishonest? Well, that depends on the intention, doesn’t it?

A company that was flagged up for its role in one of the greatest acts of data manipulation in politics in the last twenty years, that reportedly worked with the CIA and M15 on psy-ops, suddenly becomes very visible when its supposed customers look to have a target painted on their backs, and then takes the fall for them — getting a very public beating — and then some of their employees set up a shop with a new company that is now supposedly going to operate on an ethical basis? Is that at all suspicious? Is that suggestive at all of a data manipulation company trying to disappear behind a smokescreen of data manipulation? Who is to say? Well, the proof will be in the pudding I am sure.

Public Relations is not to be conflated with BS — it is supposed to have, at its heart, the truth, and if it doesn’t it really isn’t going to fly. Perhaps it will fly for as long as you need it to, before you have to find a new mask and rebuild yet again.

How long does it take to discover whether a company is ethical? One conversation — just survey them on what they are willing to do. Once you have established that you can make the decision on whether you want to deal with them at all.