Don't shoot the PR, politicians can do that much!

At the core of a loss or victory in elections is what the politicians themselves are able to say.

Another election passed with the usual emotions and among the losers began the shooting of the guilty. In Bulgarian tradition, these are the PR consultants.

Nothing new. We are observing this picture for the fifth time within two years.

And again, traditionally, politicians are great and have performed brilliantly! Those who entered the parliament are proud, while others from the outside remain still misunderstood. Incredible ideas have come from their mouths, and they have literally bewildered their supporters with their smiles and brilliant messages,

but you see, the consultants, as everyone calls them "PR’s", did not perform,

and that's why they didn't win. And all sides speak on all possible TV channels, except for the winner, of course.

I have always said that if someone is not taught something, it is not a big problem. I can make an amateur into a professional in about six months; I have done it hundreds of times. But I can't make a lazy person become a hard worker or a team player.

The same applies to politics, especially during elections.

There is no PR expert in the world who can change the political messages of their client or make them more charismatic and appealing if the clients don’t have those qualities themselves.

The truth is, at the core of a loss or victory in an election is not the PR strategy, but what the politicians themselves are capable of saying and how they say it to whom. PR experts are not magicians, but consultants. They can transform a politician, but they cannot change his views.

There is no way a politician with a completely left-wing mindset and beautiful appeals to spend more and indiscriminately to attract the votes of the business community even with his most charming smile. Because the business community wants work to be done, profits to be made, and only then to think about how, who, and how much to spend. And conversely, a well-dressed right-wing politician, calling to work hard, tighten belts and freeze pensions, cannot win in a village or a town full of pensioners and unemployed people.

The PR consultant is important, very important, but we have always been in the secondary market. First is the client - whether it's a politician, a company, a businessman... this rarely matters to the professional, although personally I have always kept my distance from political marketing and have even tried not to even touch it because of... the politicians themselves. At least ten thousand projects have passed through my eyes in the last 30 years, and I can confidently say that there is nothing funnier than a politician dressed in power, who stares into his PR consultant and obediently follows every piece of advice. Just as I have seen hundreds of politicians introduce me to their consultants with the humiliating words for our wonderful business, “This is my PR!”.

The latest elections showed this sad picture most clearly.

Candidates who wanted to win the city, appeared with proud tractor drivers

in the fields, boarded trains, waved revolutionary haircuts, and pretended to be more populist than their left-wing competitors. Not one of them even had the courage to congratulate the winners, even with all the criticism they could address to them in that greeting. And this applies to every loss and every victory.

Simply, the laws of the profession in politics are clear. The reason is not in the PR, the reason is always in the client. He can do as much as his intelligence, experience, and understanding of success allows him. Not an ounce more.

* The article was published in the newspaper 24 hours