How do you say ‘goodbye’ in Arabic? And where is the best place to go to the hairdresser in Qatar? No question is too crazy for 38-year-old influencer Haroon al-Khalifa, known online as the hip ‘Mr. Q’. The videos that the Qatari spreads via Instagram and YouTube are viewed tens of thousands of times and are part of the slick online campaign ‘I love Qatar’, with which the government of the small emirate hopes to influence public opinion on the eve of the World Cup.
This month the organizers are experiencing their finest hour. Because despite the avalanche of criticism about ‘modern slavery’, bribery of Fifa bosses and repression of LGBT people, half the world’s population will still crawl in front of the TV to watch a tournament hosted by Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and his confidants in the scaffolding has been set. The simple fact that it will go ahead is already a huge stunt for a country the size of Friesland twice.
It is also the harvest of a sophisticated PR strategy that goes back years. By 2012, two years after the emirate was awarded the tournament, the mood was still rather tense. Internationally, the country had a bad image, and the government in Doha – which had no experience with a free press – had no answer. Criminal investigations into bribery surrounding FIFA’s award of the World Cup were ongoing, and the country was (and is) known to fund dubious organizations such as the Palestinian Hamas, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and – later – al-Nusra Front in Syria.
On the advice of PR agencies, the exploitation of migrant workers was overhauled
“They panicked and realized they needed help,” British writer John McManus quotes an (anonymous) female PR consultant in this year’s book Inside Qatar. That help came from the big names in the world of marketing and advertising agencies, including Hill+Knowlton, Blue Rubicon and Portland Communications. ‘They paid us, and in return they expected us to Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post would pay,” says the PR advisor. “They didn’t understand that the world doesn’t work that way.”
Ultimately, the agencies are said to have urged the Qataris to do something about the infamous ‘kafala system’ for migrant workers. Migrants – about 90 percent of the population in Qatar – were only allowed to change jobs or travel with the permission of their company (the ‘sponsor’), which in practice led to enormous exploitation. ‘We could only tell them that the Guardian and Amnesty International would not leave them alone until kafala was abolished,” said the PR adviser. Get rid of it quickly, was the message. ‘Then we will do the communication to fix the matter.’
Thus it happened. The system was overhauled in 2020, at least on paper (and after the football stadiums were largely finished). Human rights organizations point out that enforcement is scant. It still happens that salaries are not paid for months. Workers who took to the streets to protest were expelled from the country earlier this year. Amnesty International’s appeal to pay migrant workers €440 million in compensation for damage to health and lost salaries has come to nothing for the time being. ‘Where are the victims?’, said Labor Minister Ali Ben Samikh Al-Marri on Wednesday. “Do you have their names?”
World stars like Neymar and Mbappé play with Qatar Airways on their chest
A second pillar under the PR strategy is the sport itself. Qatar won the Asian Games (2006), the World Handball Championships (2015), the World Cycling Championships (2016) and the World Championships in Athletics (2019), all events that brought the emirate positive news. Following on from that other wealthy mini-state, the United Arab Emirates (which took over Manchester City), Qatar bought a major European top club, the French Paris Saint-Germain, in 2011. World stars such as Neymar and Kylian Mbappé, playing football with ‘Qatar Airways’ on their shirts, are walking billboards for Emir Tamim every week.
It has long been discovered in Doha that critical reports and figures do not stick around forever. What sticks is the image: that which is visible to everyone. The successful TV channel Al Jazeera, for example, was founded in 1996 to compete with CNN. There is a philharmonic orchestra, a handful of branches of Western universities (Georgetown University, University College London), a series of top museums, a state-of-the-art library (designed by Rem Koolhaas) and an airline (Qatar Airways) that has been voted the best in the world several times. .
“You can believe your own eyes,” influencer said “Mr. Q’, when asked how he deals with ‘fake news’ about his country. He just needs to show reality. Building on that principle, the government has invited some 1,600 supporters from all over the world – including fifty Orange fans – to come and see the World Cup with their own eyes at the expense of the emir. In exchange, the organization can use their cheerful videos and photos as free advertising.
Highly paid former football players such as David Beckham, Cafu and the twin brothers Ronald and Frank de Boer helped to promote Qatar’s recipe as ambassadors. Ronald de Boer sowed doubts about the mortality rates among migrant workers at a talk show table. Fellow ambassador Xavi Hernández (and current FC Barcelona coach) lived in Qatar for years, and concluded that the dictatorship ‘works better’ than Spanish democracy. “It’s safe here, we don’t even have a house key,” he told the Catalan press. ‘It is true that there is no democracy, but the people are happy. They are fond of the royal family, they hang pictures of the emir in the car. He takes care of his citizens.’