WHAT IF WE WERE BORIS JOHNSON’S PR TEAM?

🚨 Disclaimer 🚨 This is not a political post. We don't do that around here. It's intended to be a bit of fun, nothing more, nothing less. So if you're the type to find offence where there is none, please click off and grab yourself a cup of tea instead.

Now that's out of the way; let's get on with it.

Today we're talking about Boris Johnson. Yes, really.

This ex-Prime Minister of the United Kingdom has had more downfalls followed by spectacular comebacks than we dare to admit. He embodies, "If you fall, just get back up." better than almost anyone in the public domain. Love him or hate him, you can't deny his stamina, commitment and grit in tackling his multiple demises head-on.

Call it bravery, delusion, or just a magnificent lack of shame: the choice is yours.

His latest fall from grace saw him sacked as the Prime Minister of the UK following a series of unbelievable scandals. Then, his party replaced him with Liz Truss, who fell even harder just 45-days after her appointment. Arguably, Boris Johnson looked like the picture of competence in comparison.

He should have left it there.

The narrative was fast becoming that Boris Johnson had been unfairly ousted from office and recklessly replaced with Liz - who some considered to be a stark representation of just how 'good' Boris 'actually' was.

All the stars aligned. Whilst he was busy enjoying a luxury holiday in the Dominican Republic, the UK economy crashed, and Liz Truss hid underneath a desk whilst her political career burned to bits

It was the perfect end to his story.

In some people's eyes, he'd gone from an incompetent and blubbering fool - dragged kicking and screaming to resign by his own team - to the forgotten Prime Minister. The narrative was re-written in real-time, and the chatter and noise started to speak of Boris Johnson as an unfairly treated and undemocratically ousted national hero.

Were we now paying for our daring to get rid of him? Could the story have been different? Was he just misunderstood?

But this is Boris we're talking about - he couldn't just leave it there.

Liz Truss was gone, and now he had the perfect opportunity to make the comeback of a lifetime. He would re-run for the leader of the Conservative Party and be back in No. 10. before sunset.

We all saw him clambering off that British Airways flight, and let's not forget that famous image of him sitting on the phone rallying support.

Was this it? Was this his opportunity?

What seemed unimaginable just 12 weeks ago was now a stark reality.

But no, it wasn't to be - he flopped, big time.

After his famous flight back from the Dominican Republic, and a leadership campaign which felt like it lasted less time than an Emmerdale re-run, Boris dropped out of the race, and Rishi Sunak became our Prime Minister.

… HE disappeared into the shadows, and nobody has seen him since.

So did he go back to the Dominican Republic?

Is he hiding away to soothe his bruised ego?

Is he quietly planning his next move?

Or is he just having another party?

We don't know...

But he probably will be back knowing him.

So, is he ready to make the comeback of a lifetime? Well, first, he needs a solid strategy to get back on the side of the people and rise to popularity again, and seen as we have nothing better to do, we thought we'd give the poor guy a pointer or two.

So, let's delve into what we'd tell Boris to do if we actually were his PR team… (what a thought)…

Boris should get himself on a podcast, more specifically, a long-form podcast where the host takes a sensitive but firm approach. He needs to be asked the hard questions, completely unfiltered, and have the space and time to answer openly.

Boris desperately needs humanising to the general public, but not necessarily to portray his wit, light-heartedness and humour, because he already does quite a good job in this area, but to demonstrate his ability to be serious, candid and multi-dimensional.

Undoubtedly, Boris has endured some difficult times on a human level. He had to navigate through a global pandemic whilst welcoming two new children into the world. He also lost his mother and ended up in intensive care. Whatever people think of him, these are real-life events to which anyone can relate. So we'd encourage him to dare to be vulnerable, open up, and address the tough topics directly.

We're too used to seeing Boris's funny memes and short-snippet GIFs playing a class clown joke or pulling a witty one-liner, and that's often worked in his favour. In stark contrast to this, short-form snippets circulating on TikTok and Instagram of Boris answering hard and uncomfortable questions in a relatable manner would stand out and capture people's attention as something different from Boris.

Most important here is to drop the political spiel and media training and be just be him - unapologetically and frankly.

GET OUT ON THE GROUND.

To complement a longer-form piece of content which takes a more serious approach, we suggest a launch of Boris on TikTok. Here he could give his audience a peak into his daily life, talk about the causes he cares about, and answer submitted questions directly and head-on.

TikTok would be the perfect platform for him to connect directly with people, build a community, and infiltrate new audiences and demographics. It would also perfectly suit his funny-man, joker character and allow him to gauge reactions and get real-time feedback on his thoughts, ideas and direction of travel.

He thinks of himself as a trailblazer in the political domain. Being the first politician to dare tackle TikTok would reaffirm that and put him as brave, authentic and willing to be vulnerable in the eyes of the audience.

GET OUT ON THE GROUND.

Whilst politicians scramble to tackle so many issues in the country and get caught up in arguments with themselves and others, Boris would stand out if he ignored the noise and disassociated himself from the politics bubble.

People are desperate for someone to step outside the machine and relate to them in a way that feels raw, authentic and from the heart.

He should get out there and meet as many people as possible, listen and engage with the local and broader communities with one mission: to help and bring a spark of joy to someone's day.

It's hard to forget the famous video of Boris hanging from a zip line, stuck in London's Victoria Park in 2012. When he was London's Mayor, he visited to highlight Olympic attractions across the capital, and the staff somehow persuaded him to ride a newly installed zip line. Unlike a sensible politician, he agreed, climbed the tower, strapped himself into an undignified harness, grabbed two small plastic union jack flags, and set off.

The moment went viral for the times and cemented Boris Johnson as a critical player in the political landscape because of his willingness to get stuck and act like one of us.

We'd suggest more of that.

CREATE SOME BUZZ.

Boris has to get back out there if he wants to reestablish his credibility and likability and rebuild his reputation. It's not going to be easy, Boris, but with these handy tips, you might do it.

Is Boris ever making a comeback a good thing? Well, that's up to you. But stranger things have happened, and it was a fun topic to talk about nonetheless.

So, there you have it. Let's see if he takes us up on our advice.

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