Guest post: Why Israel Cannot Solve Its PR Challenge (or, It’s The Message, Stupid!)
This was sent to me with a request/offer that I post it as a guest post, verbatim, and so I am doing so. Why Israel Cannot Solve Its PR Challenge (or, It’s The Message, Stupid!)And having now read what I posted on Glenn's behalf, I agree wholeheartedly. Now that he has diagnosed the problem, I hope he has some solutions.
By Glenn Jasper
I spend my days helping clients develop and implement PR campaigns designed to promote the company in such a compelling way that its key audience will respond positively to what the company is communicating. Ultimately, the goal is always to build momentum and help the company achieve its potential.
So given that professional experience, it should be relatively simple to diagnose the PR problems Israel is having and prescribe a certain program to improve the situation.
And it is simple, but not in the way you might think.
Much has been written over the past few weeks – ever since "The Flotilla Affair" – about the overall weakness of Israel's PR, both when crises hit and in general. And they all brought wonderful examples of how and why Israel's PR has missed the mark.
But I'm afraid they've missed the mark as well.
One example lamented Information Minister Yuli Edelstein's frustrating cell phone contact system. But that is wrong, because fixing Edelstein's voicemail wouldn't help fight the incredible PR machine our enemies have built.
Another article suggested that as long as Israel is not able to separate the politics from the tourism, Jerusalem's tourism industry is going to suffer. But again, that is incorrect. Jerusalem is the center of the religious universe, and as such is going to be the hottest point on Earth for conflict. That is the deal and we must all understand and even embrace that. But this is irrelevant as well, in terms of the larger question about Israel's PR, although we are getting closer to the point.
Another PR complaint over the years has been the lack of Israel spokespeople who are able to speak strong English. Well, we now have Mark Regev at the wheel, one of the best I've ever seen, as well as Michael Oren in the U.S., who is fantastic.
And yet, Israel has had one of its worst PR runs over the last 12 months that it has had in decades. Doesn't this seem strange to you?
How can it be that we did better PR during the post-9/11 phase, when Ariel Sharon – who had trouble speaking "sound-bite English" – was prime minister, than we are doing now, when U.S.-educated Binyamin Netanyahu is at the helm?
When you consider the overall futility of the three above arguments of 1. Logistical ineptitude (the Edelstein example), 2. Brushing aside the negative, in favor of the positive (the Jerusalem tourism example) and 3. Native-English-speaking spokespeople (The Regev-Oren-Bibi example), there is only one conclusion that should be drawn.
It's not about any of these things.
To understand why we are failing, we must first look at why the other side is succeeding. And the answer to that question is simple: A unified message.
It wouldn't matter of Edelstein drank Red Bull 24 hours a day and was 100% available for all requested interviews. Because an hour later, someone from the government opposition will submit to an interview and completely contradict what Edelstein has said.
It doesn't matter that Jerusalem has wonderful views, great restaurants and almost-perfect weather, especially this time of year. Because the world is being told – by Jewish-Israelis – on a regular basis that Jerusalem is a place of conflict, and that the conflict is all the fault of the Jews.
And it doesn't matter that we have our strongest international spokespeople since the days of Golda Meir and Abba Eban.
Because we do not have that item that can often be the difference between success and failure for any PR campaign. In fact, it should be the cornerstone of any campaign.
It is the unified message.
After 9/11, Israel was unified, not only in its condemnation of the attack, but in its message to the world of "You see! This is what we've been going through! Now, do you understand us?"
But time has "healed," and we have once again descended to our previous disagreements and ideologies. We are not united.
And sadly, if Israel itself is not unified – as our enemies are, for the purpose of destroying Israel – then there will be no unified message, and we will continue to lose the PR battle, even if we are right.
So, please do not waste your time analyzing the PR strategy – or even lack thereof – or tactical approach of the Israeli government. It's not about that. It's the same problem that has plagued the Jewish people for centuries. We can't unify. Even about a message. Even when our future is at stake.
Glenn Jasper is a PR veteran and the General Manager of Ruder Finn Israel, the leading full-service strategic marketing consultancy and public relations agency in Israel. He blogs at http://www.ruderfinn.co.il/.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:01 PM
4 Comments:
I don't see any. Israel has the disadvantage of living in a free society riven by differences. Israel's enemies have the advantage of living in totalitarian societies with a uniformity of opinion. But I would hazard a guess those societies that are strong are the ones that change and grow. Israel's strength is fact precisely what makes its enemies weak. The Jewish State learns from its mistakes; its adversaries keep repeating theirs. Israel's PR challenge is that its very richness and complexity cannot be reduced to a mere soundbite. On the other hand, there is nothing interesting about the world of Israel's enemies that can be captured by a soundbite, "except we hate Israel." Not every problem is in need of a solution.
In the face of a hostile world, Israel in spite of everything, is coping quite well indeed.
wow, that was a good post, glad you honored his request
as long as we have opposition leaders and parties who care for noone other than themselves this mess will continue.
During Lebenon 2, and Cast Iron Netanyahu stood firmly behind the left wing govt of Olmert and gave him all the backing he needed.
Now that Likud is in power, Kadima (and especially Livni) and to a lesser extent Labour (because they haven't a hope in hell of regaining the govt) take every oppertunity to undermine the current coalition.
Obama and the EU are playing us like a fiddle, and some here seem to be enjoying it
Disagree. What good would unity be if it were unity on a false position? It was the unity of position in the 1990's (the Oslo Decade) that brought us into the mess we're in now. All the spokesmen for Israel were then unified in conceding that Judea, Samaria and Gaza are "stolen land."
More important than unity is purity: The adherence to the correct doctrinal stance that all the Land of Israel belongs to the Jewish nation by right. To be unified on that position would be the best, but I'm not holding my breath, not for our Left-dominated elites. Unity in the current situation is a curse, not a blessing. We need to breach this unity by means of spokesmen who reject the Leftist-Phakestinian-Islamist narrative and talk of our being here by right. Spokesmen who tell the world we Jews are the indigenous people of this land and the Phakestinians are nothing but Arab settler-colonist invaders.
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