By Ceci Edelberg
I am no trend forecaster; I am just a very informed (possibly chronically online) Gen Zer who loves the intersection between politics, pop culture and PR. And with all the authority that those qualifications grant me, I wholeheartedly believe that horror is the next big thing for PR.
Here is the truth – brands and organizations, now more than ever, are constantly competing for attention. Wharton marketing professor and author of Contagious: Why Things Catch On, Jonah Berger, said that emotional connection is a key factor to virality. His research showed that emotion-evoking content, both positive and negative, is more often recalled than purely informational.
That’s the theory, but why horror now?
Demi Moore just won a Golden Globe for her performance in The Substance, a horror movie. A horror movie lead had not been awarded since 2007. “Nosferatu,” another horror movie, has four Oscar nominations. Horror is a genre that is often not taken seriously by award seasons, but this year is different.
“I don’t see horror films as any different from other movies,” The Substance director Coraline Fargeat told IndieWire. “They are so political. They are such a great way to tell so many things in a very rude way, and in a very indelicate way.”
As the political landscape continues to evolve quickly and the fight for specific social justice movements moves once again to the forefront of national politics, there is a real opportunity to communicate the current state of affairs through a horror lens.
As a good social scientist, I decided to put the theory to the test. Every year, PRSSA National hosts the Bateman Case Study Competition, where over 60 colleges receive the same brief and compete to
research, plan and implement a PR campaign. This year, I was lucky enough to be selected to represent the University of Florida’s team. Our client was EveryLibrary, an awesome national, non-partisan, non-profit organization working to fight for library funding and book access. They take a grassroots approach and understand that no two communities are the same. Everyone who is in the space loves them, but they have been struggling to reach a younger demographic.
So, we launched “Support Is Overdue,” a horror-themed awareness campaign – and people loved it. Our activations included banned book cemeteries in the center of campus, murder board interactive tabling and “Brains and Brews” a not-so-scary lecture series from professors hosted at a local brewery. Our social media is horror themed and punny in a good way (@supportisoverdue everywhere you can find it – including BlueSky).
The pledge we launched has over 1,000 signatures. And most importantly there’s buzz and excitement around it. Horror allowed us to communicate the urgency and importance of our issue without being hyperbolic. The horror theme made our campaign feel more dimensional. People were stopping us because they wanted to know what the college kids with the t-shirts that had a knife going through a stack of books and a drippy font were all about.
PR pros, especially those in public interests campaigns, can use this genre to mobilize people to take action. And if you don’t believe me – take a note from UNICEF and Amnesty International.
If you want to see what a horror campaign looks like in action you can find us at https://www.supportisoverdue.com/
Ceci Edelberg is a senior at the University of Florida studying public relations with minors in history and Latin America studies. At school, she is the managing director of Alpha PR, the PRSSA-affiliated student-run firm, chief of staff of the Hispanic Student Association and DEI Chair of Alpha Epsilon Phi. She loves listening to podcasts, trying out curly hair products and spending hours chatting with her roommates on the floor of her college apartment.