Black PR: concept, technology, examples. PR campaign. Black PR is also PR

Black PR is a focused activity aimed at destroying or degrading the image of a particular person or organization. Interestingly, this term is of domestic origin. But in Western practice, it means activities aimed at supporting African Americans. The term "black PR" arose in the early 90s and meant the dissemination of information of a political or commercial nature, payment for which was made informally (in shadow form). But, despite the purely Russian origin of the term, similar activities to discredit competitors are carried out in all countries of the world. Although in the West, all this is happening more veiled.

Colorful PR

Modern PR is a whole colorful palette, which implies the use of various methods to achieve certain positioning goals. The PR palette is as follows:

• White - building close ties between the subject and the public in order to form a positive attitude towards his personality or activity.
• The black - the exact opposite of the previous type of PR. It is aimed at creating a negative image of a competitor in the eyes of the public.
• Gray - positive or negative PR, which uses data from hidden sources. Often implies an impact on the subconscious of the audience.
• Pink - based on legends and myths that satisfy the audience's need for illusions. There is a development of social optimism and a sense of future well-being.
• Yellow - scandalous insulting information that attracts public attention and cause heated debate.
• Green - demonstrates social responsibility and concern for the environment.
• Gold - creating the image of the organization based on pricing policy.

Key features of black PR

Black PR is an integral phenomenon in the modern commercial, political or informational environment. This is one of the methods of unfair competition when someone tries to drown a competitor by disseminating false or incriminating information about him. The following key features of this type of activity can be distinguished:

• carries knowingly false information, and if it is true, then it is obtained, as a rule, by dishonest means (bribery, espionage, etc.);
• can lead to the complete destruction of the organization or the destruction of a person’s reputation (it’s easier to start working on something new than trying to “wash off” black PR);
• information presented to the public, often does not meet the moral and ethical standards accepted in society;
• the goal of black PR is not to improve one’s own reputation, but it’s about drowning competitors;
• publication of incriminating information in the media is paid;
• incriminating information, as a rule, contains some kind of new veiled idea that needs to be imposed on the audience;
• in some cases, it may be useful for the object it is aimed at (recognition increases);
• incriminating information is almost always distributed anonymously;
• preparation of a black PR campaign requires significant material investment.

PR campaign structure

When working with compromising materials, the PR manager organizes his work according to the standard scheme, which is relevant for any PR campaign. It includes such elements:

• definition of ultimate goals and their detailedization for specific tasks (what you want to achieve as a result);
• determination of the target audience (in which circles the information will be disseminated);
• location and contacts (where and how you can contact representatives of the target audience to convey the necessary information to them);
• development of a scheme for working with the media (analysis of methods for delivering information to the target audience, selection of priority ones);
• definition of the information component (what should be the message in order to cause resonance in society);
• planning events during which compromising information will be disseminated;
• planning for side events that will be triggered to increase resonance;
• direct creation of events, dissemination of information;
• analysis of the results;
• corrective measures;
• completion of the project.

Black PR Technology

What tricks do organizations and individuals not use in order to denigrate competitors in the eyes of the audience. In general, if we consider black PR, we can distinguish the following main methods:

• Compromising evidence. The goal is to raise doubts about the competence of a competitor by launching some information and delivering it to a wide audience. Moreover, the accusations must be perceived by the public as reliable. Most often, the artificial creation of a resonant event is required, which is widely circulated through the media.
• "Bad praise." It is necessary to publicly praise the adversary in such a way that the information has the opposite effect on the audience. This can be achieved by exaggerating success, excessive use of laudatory epithets. However, the information is not supported by any facts. Thus, image deterioration occurs.
• Double audience. This means that first you need to influence one group of people who will spread their negative reaction to other segments. For example, in order to achieve a reaction of the authorities, a PR campaign is being developed aimed at provoking discontent among the population. The media react to this with lightning speed. Then, the authorities have no choice but to react.
• "Hook and bait." For the object to be compromised, a situation is artificially created in which it must fall. Then everything develops so that he himself spoils his reputation.
• Public outrage. The goal is to search for an object or situation to which the public will react with indignation. With the help of the media, the state of dissatisfaction needs to be warmed up as long as possible.
• Administrative resource. Using false information, local or state authorities are opposed to a particular organization. During inspections conducted by these structures, numerous violations are detected, which often leads to the destruction of the enterprise.

Examples of using black PR

Not only for their own development, but also to denigrate a competitor, a whole PR campaign can be developed. In order to understand how this works in practice, the following examples can be given:

• At the event, organized by the head of the district, competitors invited a businessman who was supposed to give a speech of praise. At the end of the holiday, a person began to tell the audience about the successes of the local leader, about what he managed to do and build, which caused the audience to approve. Later, the speaker in the same positive tones began to talk about capital construction, which is planned to be carried out, which caused negative emotions in the audience, because their cozy courtyards will turn into wells. So, as a result of using the method of "bad praise", the head of the district lost the trust of citizens.
• An example of Public Relations on the basis of the principle of a double audience: for example, the leaders of the company that you want to discredit were seen in the expression of nationalist ideas.Moreover, they expressed their beliefs only in private conversations. Information was communicated to public organizations and national communities. Their indignation aroused media interest. As a result, the company went broke.
• Two young people of a presentable appearance penetrate into an elite night club. Being already in the room, they dress up as tramps, start rowding, pestering guests and fighting with guards. The result - the club’s reputation is destroyed, it loses customers.
• Suppose the head of a conditional supermarket chain wanted to eliminate a major competitor. For this, a large group of people was hired to create artificial queues at the box office. Moreover, each participant in this "action" has a sufficiently large number of products. Other buyers create a negative image of the store. Fearing long lines, they begin to bypass him.
• The most typical example of using the hook and bait method is the real situation with US President Bill Clinton. He was introduced to Monica Lewinsky, after which an affair began. He was later charged with sexual harassment, and extramarital affair with Lewinsky served as an argument against him.

Ways to counter black PR

Each action has its own opposition, and therefore organizations or individuals that someone is trying to compromise do not sit idly by. There are a number of Public Relations methods that can help neutralize an information attack:

• Disruption of the attack. If you have information that compromising evidence is being prepared for you, you must slander yourself using the media and other means of disseminating information. The charges must be weighty and rude. But after a short time, a rebuttal comes out with reinforced concrete evidence. Thus, the public will develop immunity to any new accusations.
• Flash method. Against the background of an information attack by competitors, an event should be artificially created that in its importance will block the incriminating material. It is important that this process proceeds in a different information plane and has a positive connotation.
• Counterattack. In response to an information attack, you organize your war with a source of negative and untruthful information about you.
• Strengthening white PR. Ignoring the incriminating evidence, you need to work as closely as possible with your audience, demonstrating only positive qualities.

Black PR in politics

The most vivid and distinctly visible black PR in politics. This usually happens during the election campaign period, when the main goal is to denigrate the main competitor or opponent. In the West, this phenomenon is called "dirty politics", but in domestic practice it does not meet active resistance in society. This is due to the fact that there is a general negative attitude towards politicians. Members of the public sometimes positively assess attacks on the authorities.

Not every politician has a competent PR manager. In most cases, a standard scheme is implemented when an exclusively positive image of a representative of the authorities is created, and all the negative ones are carefully hidden. Such “secrecy” provides a wide field for the activity of opponents, the purpose of which is to make the “dark spots” in the biography of their adversary public. But this is only the most primitive form. Often in politics, the "image of the enemy" is used, which implies the following:

• nothing good is to be expected from the enemy, and therefore one cannot trust him and provide support;
• all the blame for the ongoing negative processes lies with the political opponent;
• the collapse of the enemy is equated with the automatic offensive of the welfare of the people;
• no matter what difficulties a “bad” politician befalls, one should not feel compassion for him;
• All enemy companions are automatically given the same status.

Common tricks of black PR in politics

The concept of "black PR" is often associated precisely with politics. Here are examples of the most common tricks that can be used to eliminate a competitor or opponent:

• A person who is a full namesake or namesake of a politician organizes a charity event during which distribution of food packages or other goods takes place. Naturally, they will be of poor quality, which will cause outrage among the electorate.
• Placement of compromising photo and video material. Most often, covert shooting is carried out in an informal setting, where the politician allows himself some liberties, but also the mounted materials are actively used.
• The formation of a negative image due to an unreliable audience. For example, pro-fascist organizations or representatives of the LGBT community can be hired in order to campaign for a competitor.
• The appearance of relatives. It can be illegitimate children, brothers or sisters who eke out a miserable miserable existence. As a rule, these are hired people who actively speak on television and during rallies.
• Illegal advertising. This implies campaigning for a competitor in the so-called "days of silence."
• Vandalism and property damage. This refers to sticking competitor leaflets on architectural monuments, doors and windows of residential buildings, car windows. In order to achieve greater bitterness of the audience, indelible glue or caustic paint can be used.
• Custom articles. Local print media publish notes on the corruption of the candidate for election.
• Secret agent. In the media, an objectionable candidate may be caught in relations with foreign intelligence services.
• Demonstration of luxury. The main goal is to publicize as many expensive purchases of the opponent as possible, study children abroad, high-profile celebrations in which the politician took part.

The main tools of black PR on the Internet

With the advent of the global network, it has become much easier to denigrate competitors. Black PR on the Internet implies the use of such basic tools:

• Forums, blogs, social networks. On such resources, fake accounts are actively created from which compromising information is distributed. “Trolls” are actively involved in the discussion, citing powerful and convincing arguments.
• Reviews If before a person asked an opinion about the quality of goods or services about his acquaintances, now he, first of all, is looking for such information on the Internet. Therefore, quite often in the fight against competitors fake negative responses about the work of an organization are used.
• Sites for posting incriminating evidence. The network has a huge amount of resources that specialize in black PR. They collected a lot of defamatory information about famous people and organizations.
• Clone Sites. Designed to mislead users. The resource is an almost complete copy of the organization’s real site, with the exception of content. The page is filled with obscene language, as well as media with extremist or other offensive content.

How to deal with black PR on the Internet

Despite the fact that the Internet is a global network in which information is spreading at an incredible speed, even here you can deal with compromising evidence. Countering black PR on the Internet may include the following activities:

• Search and delete negative comments and reviews from different resources. It is difficult and painstaking, and therefore it is necessary to attract a large number of people to this process.
• Dissemination of positive information about your organization. To work effectively in this direction, you will have to use SEO and SMM tools. This refers to optimizing resources with positive information so that they become more accessible to users.
• Newsletter.A well-written press release will strengthen the organization’s position against the backdrop of a negative information attack.
• Buying pages with good traffic and reputation in order to post information about the company and links to its resources.
• Activation of white PR in the network to overshadow the negative that comes from competitors.
• A PR project is being developed, the implementation of which will create a positive image of the company on the network, which will be difficult to shake with any informational stuffing.

Conclusion

Black PR is also PR. The main thing is to promptly and competently respond to an artificially created situation. It is important not to rush, and not to delay time. It is not necessary to leave incriminating evidence without attention, but it is also impossible to make excuses. If you manage to find a fine line, having formed a line of behavior on its basis, you can get out of the situation with benefit for yourself.