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PR Fuel: PR Doesn't Win WarsI have one friend from the country of Georgia and he is as confused as I am."I don't know what's going on," he told me yesterday. We were talking on the phone when President Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia appeared on NBC News to discuss the situation. Saakashvili compared Russia's current actions to those of its predecessor, the Soviet Union, in 1956 in Hungary and 1968 in what was then Czechoslovakia. "Why is he on television?" my friend shouted. "He needs to be running the country, not doing PR!" My friend might be correct, but public relations is playing an important role in the current crisis. Georgia has engaged Belgian public relations advisers to herald its cause. Saakashvili has been interviewed on television around the world and penned opinion pieces for The Wall Street Journal and European newspapers. Georgians around the world have held protests outside of Russian embassies and the Georgian Olympic team held a candlelight vigil in Beijing earlier this week. Russia is taking a different tack. Though the government has also reportedly hired Brussels-based PR advisers, Russia is expending most of its PR energy at home, internalizing its "promotion" of its side of the story to ensure that Russians are supportive. Reports suggest that most Russians are firmly behind the government and the military. The United States is conducting most of its PR behind the scenes, or at least it seems that way. President Bush has certainly not shied away from commenting on the situation or condemning Russia, but because we don't have direct military involvement, the U.S. PR machine is working quietly. Utilizing modern PR tactics is, of course, part of the battle to "win hearts and minds." In this particular case, because the lines are so obviously drawn, this is a losing tactic in the areas directly affected by the warring. However, both Georgia and Russia can win public opinion outside of their borders, and both appear to be doing so, to an extent. Russia, for example, is being vilified by virtually every media outlet and commentator in the world. Oddly, however, there seems to be a real ambivalence towards what's going on in Georgia among most populations. This, I believe, is due to Russia's PR strategy, which has let Georgia scream and shout while the Russian army does what it pleases. It sounds like an odd strategy, but the reality is that silence sends a message that says, "We're right and we're going to prove it." Whether you believe it or not is another story, but the lack of "noise" coming from the Russian government actually drowns out some of what Georgia is saying - and plays well with segments of the population who were against the war in Iraq and inherently distrust governments and the mainstream now. The ambivalence I wrote about earlier obviously works against Georgia, but Saakashvili's use of the media has been effective. He has portrayed his country in a sympathetic light and has helped foster the image of Russia as the Soviet Union reborn. He stays on message during his interviews and basically challenges viewers to do something, anything. Where PR efforts are failing for Georgia is that a fair amount of the information coming from Georgian media and government officials does not appear to jibe with what reporters from international news organizations are seeing with their own eyes. The region of conflict is remote and lacks infrastructure, which leads to some of the problems. Nonetheless, every inaccurate report coming from Georgian sources works against the country's cause. The seemingly isolated nature of the Georgia-Russia conflict - combined with economic woes in many countries, an ambivalence to or ignorance of international events, and the spectacle of the Olympics - has diminished some of the impact of PR coming from both sides. This won't stop either country from trying its best PR tactics, but in the end, the conflict is only going to be resolved by guns or in back-rooms by politicians.
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