What price to do PR for Harvey Weinstein?

The corporate comms exec has got a headache. She is sick and tired of her job.

One of her clients is either stupid or evil, possibly both.

The client’s view of pollution and corruption is that it is how the world works. The point of public relations is to help you get away with it.

Journalists are on her case; how can she personally justify working for these monsters. Doesn’t it rather clash with her LinkedIn claims about integrity?

Then she remembers, it could be worse. At least she doesn’t do PR for Harvey Weinstein.

The man who does is called Juda Engelmayer, the subject of this profile piece in the New York Times.

By agreeing to represent Weinstein, “Engelmayer carved out a niche for himself virtually unparalleled in modern public relations, becoming the go-to guy among a particular subset of alleged fraudsters and predators, the sort whose travails were tailor-made for Netflix. Which is exactly where many of their stories wound up.”

Working for Harvey, says Engelmayer, “put me on the map….is that a bad thing to say? I don’t know”.

I asked several top PR people under what circumstances they would work for Weinstein.

One said: “Never. Ethics and reputation are worth more than any fee.”

Hm. I’d like to see that tested and I think that’s an outlier view; in most cases it is a price issue.

One flak volunteers: “The easy answer is that everyone deserves a defence, to be heard. But that’s not enough for me. I suppose I would do it, if it helped someone who I was already deeply committed to – someone I had worked with for a long time and believed in.”

So, everyone who can afford it deserves PR, in the same way that everyone gets a lawyer.

Perhaps the truth about PR is that “every man has his price, and the incorruptible man has the highest price of all”, which I thought was Jonathan Swift, but AI insists is Sir Robert Walpole.

You can’t say that Engelmayer didn’t earn his money, the hit to his personal reputation plainly being something he can live with and that clients value.

The Chris Rock joke that applies here is that if you hire Johnnie Cochran, OJ Simpson’s lawyer, everyone assumes you are guilty.

“Yeah, but you go home,” says Rock. “You want to look innocent in prison? I’d rather look guilty at the mall.”

Please send candidates for press release of the day to:
Simon.english@roxhillmedia.com