Pakistan’s PR crisis

Instead of trying to stop stories, let’s influence the type of stories world gets to hear about Pakistan, terrorism.

If you could define ‘Pakistan’ in one word, what would it be?

Millions of dollars have been spent by the Pakistani government to influence our answer to this question. Over the past 10 years, the Pakistani government and civil society waged an expensive public relations (PR) battle to convince the world that Pakistan shouldn’t be narrowly defined by the word ‘terrorism’.

Ten years later, the word terrorism continues to shadow Pakistan like a mistress who can’t live with or without her lover. You can barely find a single article on Pakistan in the international media today that doesn’t make a reference to terrorism. The PR campaign to disassociate the words ‘Pakistan’ and ‘terrorism’ appears to have been an unmitigated failure because unfortunately, this central campaign broke several cardinal rules of smart PR.

For example, if I tell you not to think of an elephant, the first image that pops in your mind is that of an elephant. Similarly, if I tell you that my country has a lot more to offer to the world than terrorism, the word terrorism is probably the only association that sticks in your mind and that, too, with negative connotations only.

One way to break this cycle is for Pakistan to make news for reasons other than terrorism. Pakistan’s civil society, as well as the government, has attempted to do this by promoting a ‘softer image’ of the country abroad (for example, by staging high profile fashion shows at Pakistani embassies around the world). However, these efforts have barely created a ripple, let alone a splash, in international media.

The news media follows a simple editorial rule: when dog bites man, it’s not news. When man bites dog, its news. Any country can host a fashion show. But there’s only one country in the world where religious extremists can hold the policy apparatus of a nuclear-armed Muslim state hostage to their street power.

This editorial insight reveals a key ingredient of our newsworthiness: Pakistan’s dirty laundry is what makes us interesting as a nation, i.e., an unholy mix of religious extremism, nuclear arms and a state of denial about the gravity of our problems.

How should Pakistan react to international media wanting to air our dirty laundry in public?

I suggest a paradigm shift in our PR strategy. Instead of dismissing international concerns as overblown and a sign of biased media coverage, we can turn the tables by flipping our greatest weakness into our most potent PR strength.

The world will continue to talk about Pakistan and terrorism. Instead of running around in circles trying to stop this, let’s influence the type of stories the world gets to hear about Pakistan and terrorism. For example, a powerful counter-narrative on terrorism can emerge from Pakistan by leveraging a simple tool: a public opinion survey that shows the majority of Pakistanis wanting their children to grow up in a country free from the threat of terrorism. This survey is also likely to reveal embarrassing fissures within Pakistani society; i.e., not every Pakistani rejects the use of violence to impose their religious world view on the rest of the world. But instead of brushing these stories under the carpet, it’s time to have an open conversation about these stories.

Pakistan’s fundamental PR problem isn’t that we have religious extremists in our midst; it’s that we don’t seriously view religious extremism as an existential threat to our state. We can change this narrative very quickly by owning the stories of real Pakistani men and women fighting against extremism in the country.

For example, we’re quick to claim that over 30,000 Pakistanis have lost their lives in the War on Terror but we haven’t communicated or owned a single human story, except Malala Yousufzai, that demonstrates our commitment to fighting extremism.

Fortunately, every PR crisis represents an opportunity to reshape one’s public image already in flux. In this case, the moment we stop trying to change the subject, we can finally show the world the light at the end of Pakistan’s terrorism tunnel.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 4^th, 2012.