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Greta Thunberg – Master of Self-marketing
Townhall.com ^ | August 9, 2020 | Rainer Zitelmann

Posted on 08/09/2020 4:37:29 AM PDT by Kaslin

Once again Greta Thunberg has demonstrated her PR genius. She just met a researcher from neighboring Norway for a conversation on the border between their two countries. And Greta didn’t waste any time posting the pictures of their meeting on Twitter and Instagram. In one of the photos, the two are seen greeting each other by touching their right feet together over the Morokulien border crossing – without physically entering the other’s country.

According to Thunberg, she was interviewing the climate and environmental scientist Per Espen Stoknes for an upcoming BBC documentary series. However, because she was not allowed to enter Norway, she and Stoknes decided to stay on their own sides of the Swedish-Norwegian border.

Greta Thunberg is without a doubt one of those very rare individuals with an almost unique talent for self-marketing, although much controversy surrounds the role she played in developing her distinctive PR strategy and how much of her rise to global fame she owes to her mother and professional PR consultants.

Distinctive brand identity and positioning

Like other masters of self-marketing before her, Greta Thunberg has turned her hair into an unmistakable visual trademark. Donald Trump has his outrageous, shiny golden combover; fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld had his powdered braid; and Albert Einstein’s hair underscored his image as the quintessential nutty professor. And Greta? She has her pigtails.

Hardly any young women still choose to wear their hair in pigtails at the age of 17. Greta’s pigtails are designed to emphasize her childlike nature, as is her slight figure and the fact that she refuses to wear make-up. Her famous outburst of anger when she addressed the United Nations was also a key element of her self-stylization – she spoke more like a fuming child than an adult: “How dare you! You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words.” Her childlike aspect is important because she wants to speak for the children of this world who have had their lives and their futures stolen from them by adults.

She stylizes herself to an unbending idealist, that is her positioning. Her motto could well be the words traditionally attributed to Martin Luther: “Here I stand, I can do no other.” Even her harshest critics credit her idealism, as if idealism were something to be admired. After all, history is full of idealists who did more harm than good. 

Perfectly staged PR

Greta Thunberg’s PR image is so perfect that her critics seek to portray her as nothing more than a puppet controlled by professional PR consultants. No one could deny that she is supported by a team of PR professionals, but it still remains to be seen whether she was “made” by them or has her own natural talent for self-marketing. In reality, it is probably a mixture of both.

Whatever the truth of the matter, Greta always manages to produce perfect pictures for her public relations campaign, just like when she set off for the United Nations climate summit in New York on September 23, 2019, to warn the world of its impending doom. As the world’s leading eco-evangelist, she did not fly, she set sail on the ocean-going yacht Malizia II. It was a powerful media spectacle of global proportions: the fragile child plunging into the life-threatening Atlantic currents to prevent the apocalypse at the very last minute. There was no question her voyage would dominate the front pages and grab the headlines around the world.

Turning weaknesses into strengths

In any case, an adept PR strategy involves skilfully recasting obvious weaknesses as strengths. Just like the self-marketing genius Stephen Hawking, who embraced his disability (ALS) as a core component of his marketing strategy (the cover of his bestseller depicted him in a wheelchair), Greta incorporates her own disability as a central feature of her self-promotion. It is widely known that she suffers from Asperger’s syndrome and she is completely open about her condition: “I have Asperger’s syndrome, and to me, almost everything is black or white.” But what Greta and her supporters have done is transform a weakness into a strength. When a reporter asked her whether living with Asperger’s syndrome made her life more difficult she responded by saying that her autism “means I’m sometimes a bit different from the norm. And – given the right circumstances – being different is a superpower.” On her Twitter bio, she originally described herself as a “15 year old climate activist with Asperger’s.”

All of this became part of the Greta Thunberg story and was enthusiastically communicated by her sympathetic supporters in the media. As one paediatric psychiatrist explained in an interview: “Without Asperger’s, she would never have made it this far. Let’s not forget, teenagers do not normally focus so narrowly on a single topic; they are usually highly animated and easily distracted by a host of different influences. But Greta has a kind of tunnel vision, she focuses entirely on this one topic. People are aware of climate change, but don’t really do anything about it. At the same time, Asperger’s sufferers can’t stand contradictions, so Greta cannot understand why people are not doing more. And that’s also why she is so unflinching and stubborn.”

Surrounding yourself with celebrities

Like others who want to become famous, Greta likes to surround herself with celebrities. She meets Hollywood stars such as Leonardo DiCaprio and Arnold Schwarzenegger, statesmen like Barack Obama and other leading figures from the worlds of business, politics and show business. By doing so, she is again exploiting a proven PR strategy that has been knowingly used again and again by other masters of self-marketing – from Andy Warhol and Oprah Winfrey to Kim Kardashian – to strengthen their own brands. And even when she doesn’t actually meet someone – Donald Trump, for example – she turns not wanting to meet them into a huge PR story. And hardly anyone bothers to mention the fact that Trump would never have agreed to meet her anyway. Despite their differences, as masters of the art of self-publicity, Donald Trump and Greta Thunberg have more in common than one might think.

A desire to provoke, a focus on publicity stunts that produce a constant stream of stories and images, an ability to redefine weaknesses as strengths and integrate this into a coherent PR story, and finally an appreciation of the value of visual trademarks (e.g. the pigtails) as a key component of a successful positioning strategy – these are all characteristics of highly professional self-marketing.



TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: environment; environmentalism; gretathunberg; marketing
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1 posted on 08/09/2020 4:37:29 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Greta is so pre-pandemic. Time for something new.


2 posted on 08/09/2020 4:40:04 AM PDT by Cowboy Bob (Mocking Liberals is not only a right, but the duty of all Americans.)
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To: Kaslin
Greta, don't you have a trip to China to visit how environmentally clean it is? 😋
3 posted on 08/09/2020 4:43:36 AM PDT by Deplorable American1776 (Proud to be a DeplorableAmerican with a Deplorable Family...even the dog is, too. :-) Trump 2020)
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To: Deplorable American1776

Bump


4 posted on 08/09/2020 4:44:44 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Didn’t her 15 minutes of fame run out around the end of 2019?


5 posted on 08/09/2020 4:45:03 AM PDT by apillar
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To: Kaslin

FEARPORN Greta is gone. HOW DARE YOU, PGalt. Don’t expose yourself again, girlfriend. You might get the ‘rona.


6 posted on 08/09/2020 4:46:13 AM PDT by PGalt ( Past Peak Civilization?)
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To: Kaslin

Why Is Living Vicariously Through Your Children Dangerous?

Even if your children share many interests with you, they are still separate people with their own hopes, dreams and interests. Whenever you try to see your dream come to fruition through someone else, you are harming that person’s individuality and harming your relationship. Pushing someone to fill a predetermined role takes that child’s interests and talents out of the equation, which also robs that child of the ability to realize his or her potential.

https://www.cbtbaltimore.com/whose-life-is-it-anyway-the-risks-of-living-vicariously-through-your-children/

Ex: Greta Thunberg


7 posted on 08/09/2020 4:47:22 AM PDT by McGruff (Polls are for dancing)
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To: Kaslin

She is not self-marketing. She is being marketed by others.


8 posted on 08/09/2020 4:49:18 AM PDT by real saxophonist (Masks are not about controlling a virus. Masks are about controlling people.)
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To: Kaslin
...she is on the Autism spectrum and was led to her position by her parents and their handlers... It was taking advantage of a young girl - one that is special needs - and propagated by The Left -- she had her 15 minutes of fame -- and now they have moved on to something else... The Left is that ill tempered child that is never satisfied ... the one that collapses on floor of Wal-Mart yelling and screaming for more...
9 posted on 08/09/2020 4:55:22 AM PDT by Patriot_MP (Of the Troops, For the Troops - US of A Always. Si vis pacem, para bellum)
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To: real saxophonist

“She is not self-marketing. She is being marketed by others.”

Marketed by her family. She’s the daughter of opera singer Malena Ernman and actor Svante Thunberg. Her paternal grandfather was actor and director Olof Thunberg.

She’s a created character for a mentally-challenged daughter, put on the World Stage by her moder and fader. Child abuse, it is.


10 posted on 08/09/2020 4:57:28 AM PDT by polymuser (A socialist is a communist without the power to take everything from their citizens...yet.)
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To: Kaslin

Bill Gates “self” marketing...

China is prepping for a solar minimum global cooling, meanwhile these clowns persecute dissenting scientists

The Sokal affair proves scientists can be fooled


11 posted on 08/09/2020 5:04:04 AM PDT by JudgemAll (Democrats Fed. job-security in hates:hypocrites must be gay like us or be tested/crucified)
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To: Kaslin

She’s baaaack!


12 posted on 08/09/2020 5:32:17 AM PDT by HighSierra5
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To: real saxophonist

I’m surprised that pj boy David Hogg hasn’t tried to align with her.


13 posted on 08/09/2020 5:33:57 AM PDT by redshawk ( I want my red balloon. ( https://youtu.be/V12H2mteniE))
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To: redshawk

He doesn’t like girls, unless they look like guys.


14 posted on 08/09/2020 5:35:29 AM PDT by real saxophonist (Masks are not about controlling a virus. Masks are about controlling people.)
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To: Cowboy Bob
The same thought hit me while I was reading this.

It dawned on me that Greta's time might well be up when I realized that I didn't care enough what Greta was doing to finish reading the article.

15 posted on 08/09/2020 5:38:03 AM PDT by skimbell
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To: JudgemAll

“China is prepping for a solar minimum global cooling...”

Got a link backing that?


16 posted on 08/09/2020 5:40:57 AM PDT by polymuser (A socialist is a communist without the power to take everything from their citizens...yet.)
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To: polymuser

Marx Moder.....

Darth Fader.....

Haha!!!!


17 posted on 08/09/2020 5:47:30 AM PDT by fishtank (The denial of original sin is the root of liberalism.)
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To: polymuser

I don’t have the link currently, but the Russian scientists are worried about the global cooling and crop failures.


18 posted on 08/09/2020 5:50:19 AM PDT by Bulwyf
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To: polymuser

https://www.scribd.com/document/467216956/Grand-Solar-Minimum-Updated?campaign=VigLink&ad_group=xxc1xx&source=hp_affiliate&medium=affiliate


19 posted on 08/09/2020 5:55:08 AM PDT by JudgemAll (Democrats Fed. job-security in hates:hypocrites must be gay like us or be tested/crucified)
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To: Bulwyf; JudgemAll

I’d like articles referencing China saying they’re planning for this GSM. It’s logical to assume they’re planning; I’d say their government deals with reality over grant-chasing scientists and SJWs.

I’m well aware of the GSM we’re entering. Every country should be preparing. Unlike AGW, GSMs are real and WILL cause great distress from crop failures, heating/fuel issues and hypothermia.

I’ll be very well insulated, have additional heat sources and have a long-term food store before the GSM becomes widely and unavoidably known as real.


20 posted on 08/09/2020 6:15:09 AM PDT by polymuser (A socialist is a communist without the power to take everything from their citizens...yet.)
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