The PR is PRing

The PR is PRing

Fans of Louis Tomlinson, Harry Styles or in fact any musician, TV show or movie franchise are no stranger to PR stunts and PR relationships. These relationships, often between two parties who either have projects coming up usually garner publicity for both parties involved. Many involved in Public relations utilise PR relationships to sell products, narratives or to boost a brand of someone in the public eye by connecting them to another person. Sometimes PR relationships can be also be used to enhance or improve the publics perception of the person or persons involved. 

In Harry Styles’ case his star was hitched recently to the wagon of Olivia Wilde, who had ties to Harvey Weinstein and was rumoured to have been involved in his escapades in Hollywood. Linking Olivia with Harry was a two fold approach- to better her public image and make the general public forget about the problematic things she’d done in the past and promote the movie Harry was in which Olivia was directing. This narrative was problematic on and off itself since during filming Olivia was by all intents and purposes Harry’s boss and the relationship was constantly talked about in the press- to the point that many of the general public began to loathe seeing Harry’s name in the press because it was always linked with Olivia’s and always had some drama attached. 

Now the same is happening to Harry’s former bandmate Louis Tomlinson and his new PR relationship with Zara McDermott. Zara is a former Love Island contestant who allegedly only split from a five year relationship in December from her post Love Island partner Sam Thompson. Zara allegedly cheated on Sam and since her relationship ended was seen in March at the Brits getting cosy and making out with someone else. Further to this, Sam and Louis are costars at Soccer Aid- a charity match for Unicef and while Sam and Zara seem to be benefiting massively from the link to Louis- Louis himself is losing fans, followers and face in the general public- especially since he has previously gone on record stating he has zero time for Love Island or anyone on it. Strange don’t you think, that he’s now linked with a person he has previously stated emphatically that he has no time for?

Another odd aspect of this PR stunt is how frequently the press tries to tell the GP that it’s real, authentic and that they are loved up. The kisses look staged and awkward; the body language is tense and closed off and Louis' smile is barely visible. Further to this Zara’s publicity person is none other than the former co- head of One Direction’s PR firm- Jonathan Hackford whose former co-owner of the firm is still Louis' PR person to this day. Hackford-Jones was the One Direction PR firm so isn’t it a little odd that there’s a link between their teams in this way? Further to that Zara is linked with Simon Cowell as well as she performed on Celebrity X-Factor and according to sources is still tied to those X-factor contracts, much like Louis himself. 

Yet another aspect of this pairing that seems very strange is the fact that Zara is an outspoken Tory, has made racists comments in the past and supported Brexit which made touring more difficult for many artists and limited the opportunities abroad for many young Brits. Louis grew up a working class kid with a single mum who was a midwife and has a song about Common People on his last album so being against imigrants, the poor and disabled seems very much at odds with the person he’s currently supposed to be dating. 

One other thing that fans noticed about Zara is that when she flew out to Costa Rica for their ‘loved-up couples’ holiday’ she made sure to tag Louis’ assistant in her post, letting fans of Louis know she was jetting out to join him- not very private is it for a person who claimed that he keeps his private life private and stated it’s called a private life for a reason? Oddly enough they were soon spotted by fans while with Louis team and then suddenly out of nowhere apparently paps appeared on an island loved by celebrities for the minimal paparazzi presence. It’s odd isn’t it, that the body language expert claimed they looked awkward, bored and uncomfortable around each other, for another one to come out the next day and state their relationship showed authenticity?  Darling -  if your relationship is real you might not wanna look at the paps you called to take your pics and you don’t need to tell people it’s authentic- it just is, but you know that right?

This PR mess detracts from the incredible talent that Louis is and it’s devastating for many fans to see because he thrived over the two years he didn’t need to stunt. His tour went from strength to strength with new fans joining enmasse even though he has little to no radio or media support. In fact he was getting many positive articles just by being himself, whereas now he’s been relegated to an accessory of Zara instead of the massively talented man he is. Fans are eagerly awaiting his new album and the next drop in his clothing line along with anticipating his next Away from Home Festival and his participation in Soccer Aid- although personally, my excitement has been dampened by the absolute stupidity of this PR stunt that wasn’t needed and is actually damaging his likeability both among fans and the general public. 

One has to ask themselves when PR is so obvious like the Sainsbury’s pap walk to buy flour or the kiss caught in the private driveway and carpark because the paps just happened to be there- when does it become obvious enough? When does Simon Jones- who himself is a gay man- realise that he has a diamond in his hands if only he would give him the tools to shine? Louis doesn’t need this stunt. He told fans that Chris Frewin, his manager who formerly worked for Sony/Syco and has ties to Simon Cowell, is in charge of directing him while Louis is the head of film. Many fans took this as a joke, but what if it’s not? What if this is Louis rebelling against the stunt and showing who is really running this narrative? This makes sense especially when you factor in one Harry Styles following an author with a book called Stunt Boy on the day the first of the Costa Rica stunt pictures were released. 

These boys- now men -  have been closeted for fifteen years. Isn’t it time they were set free or will it forever be a copy of a copy of a copy? This song and those lyrics tell of the devastation closeting leaves in its wake and how many closeted artists there are because ‘you won’t be the first or be the last to bleed’ because others have been there before you and will be there after you. Isn’t it time to stand up and say enough is enough, to stop men like Simon Cowell from exploiting and closeting young men? We as a fandom lost Liam and we are watching Harry and Louis suffer- so stand up and make your voice heard. Closeting is antiquated and archaic and it’s high time people were allowed to be who they are and love who they love. 

Never stop fighting for the boys to be free because tomorrow might be too late. 

Behind The Curtains.