What If...

5: Cunning Plan

My dinner was cut short because of an SOS from Mr. Elizalde, one of my prominent PR clients.

Instead of driving my sedan, I opted to use my black SUV. I feel safe when I'm driving that at night.

Upon arrival at the firm, I proceeded to my conference room. There, I saw my petite and simple-looking team member, Cindy, comforting a rotund and imposing yet distressed looking Mr. Elizalde. He's also accompanied by one of his bodyguards.

   "How can I help you, Ric? You seem very disturbed," I asked Mr. Elizalde as I sat on the table, looking at him as he sits across me.
   "What went wrong?! I have worked so hard for this, I'm sure of grabbing a seat in the next elections. People start to love me and give me that much-needed support. Then, this situation popped up of nowhere!!!" Mr. Elizalde exclaimed in anxiety.
   "What situation are you referring to, Ric?" I inquired Mr. Elizalde for I assume that he might be referring to another issue rather than the alleged sex scandal of his daughter.

Then he gestured to his bodyguard to hand over his cellphone showing a video file. I then watched the clip of a young couple, which confirmed what Tristan mentioned during dinner.

   "What's this video that you've just shown to me?" I innocently asked.
   "That's a footage of my daughter fucking her boyfriend!" Mr. Elizalde cried out. "I'm distraught that this single act of my daughter would lead to the downfall of my reputation that I have been building up for years!!!"

Mr. Elizalde is right. We actually worked hard in trying to build up his public image. As one of my business partners, he wanted to enter public office to expand his corporate interests, particularly in real estate. So, what we did is established a sustainable foundation to showcase his philanthropic work, engaged him in key public and social events, linked him with several politicians to lobby for several projects and laws that will lean towards the interests of his businesses (in exchange for personal favors and profit-shares), and subtle campaigns in the form of frequent media exposure and articles that would link him to any issue in a positive light.

This scandalous video of his daughter might overturn all our efforts into building up his public persona. This might reflect that he's a bad father, resulting to poor feedback from various sectors. Another is that people would look at him as someone who can't even manage his dirty laundry. What's worse is that this change of perception against him would also affect his business interests.

I must do something to control the damage this video has done to my client.

   "Cindy, do we have any ballpark figure to the extent this video has reached online?" I asked my team member.
   "I did, sir. Actually, while we are waiting for you, Mr. Elizalde has shown me this clip and I had time to check on the scope this clip has reached," Cindy elucidated. "Unfortunately, this went viral, reaching various social media platforms and adult websites. If I would to estimate its reach, it would be around 1.2 to 1.8 million users, and this is just within 24 hours. This would even grow exponentially because it became a trending topic, with hashtags #rina #rinaxxx #montrosescandal #juicyrina among others. These were the top 4 hashtags at Twitter during the past 24 hours."
   "This has spread too far and too fast. We also cannot refute that the lady in the video is not Rina. Her face is clearly seen here, in addition to her name frequently mentioned by her partner while moaning," I remarked while seriously thinking of a way to control the damage made to Mr. Elizalde's reputation.
   "Please, Ken! Do something about this!" Mr. Elizalde shouted as his worried stance changed to anger and frustration.
   Then I calmly expounded my plan, "Since it's all out in the open, what we can do now is appeal to the people. We shall draft a statement where Rina will admit that her actions were careless and irresponsible. However, we must point out that she was just being human, prone to making mistakes due to being young and curious with what life has to offer her. She can state that she did that out of her passionate love for her boyfriend. She will apologize sincerely and appeal to the masses to still treat her with respect and give her a second chance to life. That would be the idea of the statement, which we will post in all of her social media accounts."
   Cindy also added, "Sir, if I may suggest that we also do our Viral Squad Strategy for this statement. This was proven to be effective in our other clients' affairs. So aside from posting her statement to her social media accounts, we will be adding new hashtags such as #respectRina #loveRina #Rinacceptance, etc. These posts and hashtags will be shared by a multitude of accounts that we will generate through our advanced software to ensure that it reaches a larger group of people, eventually toppling the viral negative posts. These accounts may be used in the future to promote your various publicity campaigns and activities, making it like an instant fan base that we can control and sway public opinion for your benefit."
   "Aren't those troll accounts? That might do me more harm than good," Mr. Elizalde said as he was doubtful with the plan.
   "Don't worry, Ric. Our computer-generated accounts are secure and they won't be identified as trolls. We ensured that particular protocols are in place to make them look legitimate. This is also used by my other clients who are now in public office. If you're not comfortable with that idea, we can also ask my clients, who are also social media influencers, to spread these hashtags to their respective spheres of influence," I guaranteed my worrying client. "In a nutshell, we will bombard the social media platforms with posts showing support and expressing sentiments towards Rina. Eventually, her issue will just fizzle out."
   "Shall we also reach out to other media platforms such as print and TV?" Cindy asked.
   "No! Putting the issue on those channels will just add fuel to the fire," I refuted. "It's best that we exert our efforts in social media, and the issue will eventually ebb."
   "But what about the source of the video? How can we stop its circulation?" Mr. Elizalde asked as he is starting to be calm during this tense moment.
   "I can ask the help of our investigator friends to probe on the origin of this leakage. In the meantime, what I can suggest is that we blame the leakage to her boyfriend," I explained further.
   "That way, the ire of the public would shift from your daughter to her lover. This would give time for our investigators to focus on tracing the leak. If this leakage was proven to be not attributed to the boyfriend, then he will be absolved and public opinion towards him will shift for the better. I don't think he will mind this arrangement, since he is also part of the scandal."
   "Now things are getting clear now! Thank you for finding ways to get me out of this mess!" Mr. Elizalde joyfully remarked as he hugged me real tight for coming up with this cunning plan.
   "Don't worry about anything, Ric. I will do what I can to ensure that you get your seat during elections." I confidently assured him. "I will be discussing this with the team tomorrow on how we shall operationalize this plan. This issue will be gone without you noticing it."