Each Friday I plan to feature a social media campaign measured using Attentio’s tools. These won’t be clients–I’ve set up projects to follow campaigns featured in the online news, like the Cheetos Underground ad campaign and Nissan’s viral video campaigns, also linked to NBC’s Heroes.
This week, I want to play on a theme introduced in the last blog. Social media and government–in this case, social media and statehood.
Edward Bernays, the alleged “father of public relations”, thought that to successfully rule the people, government had to be hijacked by a skilled elite. Then this elite needed to successfully sell themselves to the people.
Bernays did not believe debate and measured opinion equalled votes or even effective government. A former propagandist for US President Wilson during World War II, Bernays thought it best to appeal to the irrational masses, not the rational individual citizen. Earn their appreciation and acquiescence, then do what’s best for them. After the war, Bernays went into business and branding. He was incredibly successful.
Veton Surroi, a Kosovo statesmen, told The Economist that earning national sovereignty–the recognised right to govern yourself–requires a certain amount of nation branding a la Bernays. Prior to setting up a government for the people, most of the people must buy into the idea that the nation exists. This means marketing your nation to the international community as well as the people that must eventually make up the nation. Kosovo is a controversial brand at the moment. Not even the European Union can afford the new nation, although some nations have made an early investment.
Rather like some populations and national leaders begun investing in the new hot nation-brand, Tibet. While no one can afford to isolate the established brand that is China, Tibet has picked up an impassioned consumer base–on the ground and online. There are hundreds of websites and many more blogs closely following the territory and its people’s movement for independence. Tibet has sailed past Kosovo as the poster child of national independence. And other groups are Buzzing about more autonomy as well—who will be next to adopt the trend towards statehood? Time will tell which state sells its sovereignty with the most success.
