One of the most tragic love stories of all time has finally come to its last act. Ketchum Inc. one of the largest public relations firms in the world recently ended its nine-year relationship with Russia.
The company began working with Russia in 2006 when the country “hosted the G8 Summit of world leaders from the richest industrialized countries for the first time and was made up into a full member.” (PR Week)
The Kremlin in Russia (PR Week)
Ketchum also worked with Russia during the 2014 Olympics in Sochi and aided in the publishing of Vladimir Putin’s famous op-ed in September of 2013.
Relations between Russia and the west have always been complicated at best, but with the continuing crisis in the Ukraine it was probably best Ketchum pulled out when it did.
The relationship was reported by the Moscow Times to have ended due to the “information war” against Russia. As a result of escalating tensions Russia feels it can no longer improve upon its position in the minds of western countries.
Ketchum told PR Week “Ketchum no longer represents the Russian Federation in the US or Europe with the exception of our office in Moscow. Our partner in the consortium, [Omnicom subsidiary] GPlus, continues to operate under the terms of the contract.”
Ketchum received a good amount of backlash during the company’s time representing Russia including a not so nice article written by the Washington Post titled “Who Would Work For Russia? These People”.
In my opinion taking Russia on as a client was a fair move on Ketchum’s part. A client is a client, even if people don’t like them.
It also made sense for the relationship to end when it did. Continuing issues with Ukraine has put a great deal of strain between Russia and the United States, which was likely to have been every difficult for Ketchum.
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