The photo is going around the world and is printed today in all major German newspapers (including BILD): The rulers of the free world put their heads together at a crisis summit on Wednesday morning. Central figure, although standing on the left fringe: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
The photo that is causing a stir was taken on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali, when the world did not know exactly where the missiles that killed two farmers in Poland came from: from Russia or from Ukraine after all?
US President Joe Biden had invited the other five NATO heads of state present to his delegation hotel, the Grand Hyatt, for the morning. In the ballroom, the leaders from Great Britain, Germany, France, Canada and Spain gathered around a round banquet table. Seated in the photo are only host Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Sunak (seen from the back in the photo). Standing: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Spain's Sanchez, France's Macron, Canada's Trudeau.
And almost all looks are directed on or in the direction of Scholz!
So is the West looking to our chancellor for advice? Is he the man who sets the tone in the moment of shock?
One might think so. And one should probably think so, too.
Because the picture is government PR. It wasn't taken by a photographer - but by Scholz's government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit. And for years, Hebestreit has been responsible for the SPD politician's reputation.
The photo - it's a balancing act between professional Scholz polish and a keyhole view. Photographers never get close to such historic moments. So you take what you can get. Better to look through the eye of the PR strategist than to see nothing at all.
It's all PR!
Communications professor Klaus Kocks (70, once VW PR chief), to BILD: "It's supposed to look like a private snapshot, but it's staged, coordinated with the PR staffs of the other heads of state".
Kocks' merciless verdict: "The picture is a brazen lie!"
And: "We are treated here like children during thunderstorms - the message that should be transported: Do not be afraid, daddy and the other uncles care."
Immo von Fallois (60), head of strategic communications consultancy WMP Eurocom, sees a photo that had one thing in mind when it was released: "This is about a photo that should stay: an icon."
The shot: "Extremely clever."
The photo message, according to von Fallois: "the concentrated liberal power, thoughtful, determined, confident." And in the center: the German chancellor.
G7 photo with Donald Trump: This is how government PR works! Steffen Hebestreit is not without precedent with his successful G20 snapshot of Chancellor Scholz: All over the world, the PR staffs of the powerful work with these so-called "handouts", i.e. photos handed out.
One of the best-known examples: Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.S. President Donald Trump at the G7 summit in Canada in June 2018 - both surrounded by the U.K.'s Theresa May (no longer in office), France's Macron and Japan's Shinzo Abe (killed in an assassination attempt in 2022).
(post is archived)