Oct 9th, 2008
Ethical PR? You got it
They say, crisis and panic bring out the worst in people. Well they might bring out the best too. Russian PR, especially when it comes to allegedly non-transparent and corruption-ridden industries like property development and construction, is often said to be primarily about paid-for coverage and other types of bribing the press.
The most recent move by the Chairman of the Board and co-owner of Mirax Group Sergey Polonsky proves it isn’t necessarily always that bad. He has published an open letter (from the Construction Association of Russia) to the journalists of Russia, pleading them to stop covering the crisis in the construction industry in a negative way.
The main sentiment of the letter is: we have been working together [huh?] for the better future of our country, now with the crisis we are screwed, so please don’t contribute to negative mood by your writing, dear journalists, because it is just killing us
And the language… ah…you gotta love it:
“Dozens of millions of unfortunate people have suffered, because irresponsible bankers and financiers got lost in the gambling of American market, risking the well-being of the common people”
“The future and the success of the construction industry depend on you, dear members of the press! We are lying flat on our back, but we have a chance to get up. We can do this only with your help. Mind you, that in case you destroy us completely, you will lose any source of news in such an exciting area as construction. We beg you to cover our industry reasonably in your publications and to paint a positive picture overall”.
Now, ‘dozens of millions’ most likely refers to all those who had at least dreamed about buying their own flats (since the number of those ‘thinking about mortgage loan’ has never been really above 10% of the population, let alone the number of those who actually used it). And the threat of losing the source of news, I suppose, is a euphemism for losing advertising and so-called ‘PR budgets’ of the developers and construction companies.
But would you disagree if I tell you that it is a major positive step forward that instead of bribing the press they come up with this open letter?
Or are they just out of cash?





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