Lately there’s been speculation online that the “people going missing/kidnapping” chatter in Delhi might be a PR buildup for Mardaani 3 (not confirmed just internet talk).
If it’s false… good.
If anything like that ever turns out to be true… then we have a bigger conversation to have.
Not just about one campaign.
But about something much broader:
How far can PR go before it becomes manipulation?
Because the truth is: PR isn’t always bad.
And it isn’t always good either.
It’s just… powerful.
And in a world where attention is currency, people will talk about anything. But at what cost? Because attention today spreads faster than truth.
We often criticize PR when it feels unethical.
But some of the biggest positive behavioral shifts in society have come from strong communication campaigns.
Swachh Bharat Abhiyan
Say what you want politically but from a pure PR and mass-awareness perspective, this campaign worked.
For a solid period during Modi 1.0 and early 2.0:
• Cleanliness became a national conversation
• Celebrities openly participated
• Schools, offices, RWAs held drives
• People felt social pressure not to litter
• “Swachhata” became aspirational
It wasn’t just policy.
It was messaging everywhere speeches, ads, radio, social media.
Did it permanently change everything? No.
Did it shift behavior and awareness for a meaningful period? Definitely.
For a while, cleanliness wasn’t just a habit — it was social pressure.
That’s what good PR can do:
Make people care about something they earlier ignored.
Pulse Polio campaign
“Do boond zindagi ki.”
Almost every Indian household remembers this.
Relentless messaging, trusted faces, simple communication.
PR here didn’t sell a product.
It built trust and participation for public health.
And it worked.
This is PR at its best:
When attention leads to real-world action.
Then there’s the other side.
The side where attention becomes more important than responsibility.
The Poonam Pandey “death” announcement
News spread everywhere that she died due to cervical cancer.
People shocked. RIP posts flooded timelines.
Then a day later, she posted saying she’s alive.
It was a campaign for cervical cancer awareness.
Now honestly ask yourself:
Did people talk more about cervical cancer?
Or about whether faking death for PR is acceptable?
For days, the conversation was about ethics, shock value, and trust.
The cause itself got lost.
If people remember the stunt more than the message, did the awareness actually happen?
Fake controversies & staged drama
This has become normal now.
You see it everywhere:
• Influencer fights → later revealed as collab
• Public breakups → song promotions
• “Leaked” conflicts → brand campaigns
• Paparazzi moments → movie announcements
Most of it is harmless.
But it slowly trains us to doubt everything.
When every emotion can be marketing, authenticity starts feeling staged. And once everything feels staged, nothing feels real anymore.
Still this is modern PR.
Attention drives everything.
Fear-based marketing (the risky zone)
This is where things start getting uncomfortable.
If any campaign ever:
• Creates public fear
• Spreads misinformation about safety
• Uses death, disease, or crime purely as shock tools
• Makes people panic just to build hype
Then it stops being clever marketing.
It becomes irresponsible communication.
Because there’s a thin line between:
Curiosity vs panic
Buzz vs misinformation
Engagement vs exploitation
And once trust breaks, every future message starts feeling staged too.
So what exactly is PR today?
Maybe PR is simply:
the art of shaping what people think and talk about.
Sometimes it builds awareness.
Sometimes it drives positive change.
Sometimes it just grabs attention — at any cost.
Good PR:
• Builds trust
• Creates meaningful awareness
• Changes behavior
• Makes the issue bigger than the brand
Bad PR:
• Relies only on shock
• Breaks trust
• Creates noise but no value
• Makes the stunt bigger than the message
Same tools. Different intent. Different impact.
Sometimes that attention builds awareness.
Sometimes it builds noise.
Sometimes it builds nothing at all.
And maybe that’s where things get blurry.
If the audience remembers the stunt but forgets the message, was it ever awareness? Or just performance?
So where exactly is the line?
And more importantly — who decides it?
Because as long as something trends, people will talk about anything.
But should they?