Taking A Dictator's Wife Out For A Spin: Asma al-Assad and Vogue

At least three pieces are out on the blogosphere putting heat on Vogue for its profile of Syrian 1st lady Asma al-Assad: ForeignPolicy.com chimes in, and there's a great take by Rahat Kurd on Wajahat Ali's Goatmilk blog. Over at the Atlantic, Max Fisher does a good de-spinning and tries to hold Vogue senior editor Chris Knutsen's feet to the fire.

As an ex-web journo and editor turned PR person, this raises a number of disturbing questions on the professional front, including the level of journalism in the article itself; the ethical decision to run it; and the PR-client relationship.

It's not clear --- but I'm trying to confirm -- whether the Syrian first family retains an external PR firm or just has an excellent in-house staff. I'd also be curious if Vogue dreamed up this idea on their own or they were pitched. I suspect the latter, considering the other Asma-as-fashionista pieces pointed out in Kurd's piece -- notably the dedicated slideshow on Huffington Post and a little glam poll on inrumor.com.

She was also named by French Fashion magazine Elle in 2008 as the most stylish woman of state ("les femmes d'état"), which in turn spawned a number of press pieces. PR people would have certainly capitalized on the Elle pronouncement(and perhaps pitched their client to Elle to be in the running in the first place). The post-Elle article that ran in the U.K.'s Sunday Times, "The London girl with a plan to save Syria," has a very similar tone and feel to the Vogue piece, right down to the cozy Christmas angle that Fisher brings out in his Vogue breakdown. That similarity in articles two years apart points to a consistent, long-term messaging and talking points strategy.

It all smacks of expert high-end PR prep and handling (and an all-too-compliant level of journalism),leaving PR practitioners in the bifurcated state of admiring the craft of a well-executed strategy and condemning the ethics of taking on families responsible for dictatorial regimes as clients.

When journos or editors migrate to the PR field, the switch is often jokingly referred to by both camps as "going over to the dark side." The Assad study is a good case in point.

Of course, Vogue may have to engage in a little damage control of its own, but I guess the Assads can recommend a good firm.