Many people believe that public relations is all about advertising.
They’re wrong.
Firstly, good advertising is expensive, even on social media.
But advertising is all about selling goods and services to people filling their needs, not the advertiser’s needs.
Public relations is not about need, it’s all about news. Telling a story with appeal to people, not about goods and services.
And let’s be quite blunt. Israel is losing in the battle of words.
When you realise what has happened during the last twelve months, the way the international community have turned their backs on Israel, you need to stop and think.
Why and how has this happened?
Hamas created the war with their mass murder of innocent citizens on 7 October 2023.
They started a war of terrorism. Barbarism, yet they have captured world sympathy.
In plain language in the war of words, Hamas has effectively created world sympathy for their terrorists by demonising both Israel and the Jewish people, not with bullets, but with words.
That’s how they are winning the war of public relations.
Does Education Really Work?
Former President of the United States Donald Trump recently remarked that not since the Holocaust have the Jewish people faced such hatred.
From a Jewish viewpoint, antisemitism has always been a concern, but today it is positively growing at a frightening rate.
Certainly, education is constructive and positive. But how far does it go?
Does a university student flashing a banner ‘Kill the Jews’ care whether or not Albert Einstein was Jewish?
Or does a farmer in Europe know that Israel invented a drip water irrigation system to improve his crop at a lower cost?
Tell them, but that’s not going to change their mind. It’s just a fact of life.
No. You need to tell a story. People love to read stories about other people, not products.
With acts of antisemitism now prevalent there’s a story to tell every day.
If a baby in a pram is stabbed to death just because his mother is Jewish, that’s a story people will read and remember.
They’ll tell it to their friends who will keep talking about it. Stories like this spread quickly.
Can You Help?
Well, yes.
We all use social media to send and receive messages and there are numerous platforms where information is circulated.
Should you see anything you think is just trivial, think about it, then take a photo and post it on your social media. Here’s an example:
Embed from Getty ImagesWhy would a religious Jewish youngster need police protection to cross the road?
There are street lights and zebra crossings to protect pedestrians, so that should be enough to ensure his safety.
But thinking about it, perhaps the police are conscious that Jewish civilians of all ages are targets for terrorists and they’re being aware of any potential danger.
There are numerous cases where motorists have run down civilians at bus stops and on footpaths.
Whoever took this photo should be commended, for it brings to mind the need for more caution during this worrying time of antisemitism.
Not only people being either killed or injured, also blatant acts of antisemitic vandalism.
Remember, hurricanes start with drops of water. Nothing is too small.
Sooner or later people will start to understand what is happening in the society where they live and be prepared to take the evil of antisemitism much more seriously and act accordingly.
That’s the sort of education which is likely to have a far greater impact.
Good public relations is all about reaching out to the heart of a person, rather than addressing the public at large.
