A beautiful May day in London. Election campaign manager Hans-Peter Schwarz is out and about in the fine Westminster district to meet PR agents. They should reveal how they could improve the chances of the satirical party “Die PARTTEI” in the federal election. The first meeting takes place in a luxury restaurant: the ambience is appropriate, after all, it is about professional support in the upcoming federal election campaign. Sushi is served, and there is no useful information without signing a contract. At least Black doesn't have to pay the bill. On to the next appointment, now it has to work.
Our protagonist meets with Thomas Borwick from the Kanto Systems agency.
After the obligatory small talk to greet him, he is led into a conference room.
The strategist from Westminster extols the skills of his company in the highest tones.
It is about using "simple messages to change the feelings and thoughts of the audience".
One could say, for example, that there are 30,000 convicts in German prisons who actually ought to be deported.
With a hidden camera for lunch
We see such scenes in the film "Undercover Election Campaigns - How PR Professionals Manipulate Us" by Peter Kreysler and Gesine Enwaldt. Of course there is no campaign manager Hans-Peter Schwarz. It is Kreysler's legend to uncover the abysses of digital manipulation with a hidden camera. PR agencies like those presented here are seen by some as digital sorcerers who can turn public opinion in the blink of an eye in favor of their clients. Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 presidential election in the United States and Brexit serve as a reference. The fact that people could have voted Trump without "manipulation" or that the Brexit supporters could tie in with a mood widespread in Great Britain comes from the minds of those who attribute both to manipulation of opinion on the Internet,not before.
The business model of London-based agencies such as Kanto Systems or New Century Media is that anything is possible if you only have the right data. According to Kreysler's statements, they did not respond to journalistic inquiries from Kreysler. But they are happy to get involved in campaign manager Hans-Peter Schwarz, played by him, and his digital legend (which Kreysler did with the help of "PARTY"). The London PR pike react to the fake online identity of the alleged election campaign manager like a fish to the angler's bait. You smell a business. On the drive to an appointment, the wired Kreysler asks himself whether “PR professionals are so easily fooled”. You leave what the investigative journalist unfortunately does not discuss.
Apparently, PR agencies that supposedly can penetrate our brains are not even able to research the political background of a satirical party. You see in Mr. Schwarz only a customer whom you want to put on an election campaign in sales talks instead of electric blankets. Martin Sonneborn said in an interview with this newspaper (FAZ on August 28) that the “PARTY” had been promised great success in the federal elections for 850,000 euros. The satirists were promised a share of the vote of up to nine percent. The expert Ben Scott, head of Reset, an initiative that campaigns for digital democracy (FAZ of February 21), says that such agencies have long been influencing the federal election campaign.
But that is, as interesting as the insight into the practices of the agencies may be and so justified the demand of the head of the State Media Authority of North Rhine-Westphalia, Tobias Schmid, for transparency on the Internet appears - whispers. Does Olaf Scholz owe his good poll numbers to the London tricksters? Have these “PR professionals”, who are easily deceived and have not prepared, penetrated the emotional world of the social democratic voter potential? Doesn't a very transparent, obviously successful PR campaign ensure that? Could Kanto Systems and New Century Media still help Armin Laschet out of the depths and at least convince Markus Söder of him? Did the Londoners fail to help Annalena Baerbock with her résumé and campaign book? The film certainly conveys insights. He shows,how journalists can fall victim to their assumptions. And he exposes alleged PR professionals as easily impressing charlatans. What did Martin Sonneborn say about New Century Media? "The agency is even more dubious than we are."
Election campaign undercover - How PR professionals manipulate us at 11:05 p.m. in the first