The Guardian has revealed in a new piece released this week that Richard Edelman, the CEO of the $1bn public relations firm Edelman, signed $9.6m in deals with the Saudi government over the past four years to sanitize the kingdom’s image.
The work, which was directed at American audiences and was projected to net Edelman more than $5.6m (£4.6m) in fees, included sending regular press releases that celebrated topics such as “mainstreaming women in business” and “doubling down efforts to empower women and youth”, the paper revealed.
One release featured a quote from Princess Reema bint Bandar Al-Saud, the Saudi ambassador to the United States, who “commend[ed] the B20 Saudi Arabia’s deep commitment to the empowerment of women”, including an “inclusive policy development process” that she hoped would “remain as one of the Saudi presidency’s lasting legacies”.
The report also pointed out that Edelman’s foreign agent filings suggest that by the time its work is completed, the firm will have earned more than $3m from the company developing Neom.
On 31 May 2022, only days before Edelman published his blogpost warning of the growing divide between democracy and autocracy, he signed a $787,500 (£652,609) contract to provide the Saudi ministry of culture with “PR and communications services”.
Billions of Dollars to Boost MBS’ Image
In August, Politico has reported that Edelman proposed a multitude of dubious ways to help Saudi Arabia repair its tarnished image, including enlisting A-list celebrities and partnering with entertainment brands.
In an article published last week, Politico said Edelman’s ideas included having Trevor Noah host The Daily Show from the Kingdom and partnering with Coachella, MTV, and celebrities.
Politico’s reporting was based on a 109-slide proposal Edelman filed with the Department of Justice for a five-year “Search Beyond” campaign. The Saudis are paying Edelman about $787,000 a year though the work could be far more lucrative should Edelman execute a full-blown campaign.
The pitch is part of Saudi Arabia’s effort to position itself as a modern destination, ridding itself of the “pariah” status it garnered with the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which President Biden said he discussed with Saudi leaders during a visit last week. A number of communications and lobbying agencies with Saudi Arabian government accounts cut business ties with the Kingdom at that time.
This is not the first deals that Saudi Arabia signs to whitewash its brutal, blood-soaked human rights record and repair its tarnished image.
The Gulf regime started using sports clubs or events, including Formula 1, to airbrush past human rights abuses and improve its global image.
MBS: World’s worst rights abuser
According to the source, Edelman’s work for the Kingdom included a promise to “research, identify and monitor online conversations and media coverage to identify ‘friends’ and detractors”, mainly in the US media. The Saudi government has a record of targeting, harassing and pursuing its critics abroad, including in the United States.
Edelman is far from the only US professional services firm doing business for the government of Saudi Arabia: McKinsey & Company, Boston Consulting Group, Hogan Lovells and Qorvis Communications are among the many others – but Edelman’s work for the regime is particularly notable given Edelman’s reputation for producing the “trust barometer”, an annual survey of public trust in government, business, the media and other institutions.
Over that same period, however, the picture presented by the Saudi government to influential American audiences has been brightened with the help of key contractors, including Edelman. Since Khashoggi’s murder, the powerful PR firm has received or is contracted to receive $9.6m (£7.9m) in fees from Saudi government agencies and companies controlled by the regime, according to a Guardian analysis of US Department of Justice documents made available by the watchdog group OpenSecrets.
The documents Edelman filed make it difficult to confirm exactly how much it has been paid by the Saudi government, and the company did not respond to a Guardian request for comment nor a request to provide an exact figure.
Social media outrage
The Saudi regime is using all possible means to portray a positive image, while refusing to improve its poor human rights record, sparking widespread outrage on social media.
Some Saudi online activists slammed the Kingdom’s attempts to whitewash its human rights violations while continuing to suppress peaceful activists.
Others stressed that Saudi Arabia will continue to be labelled as one of the world’s worst rights abusers.
