Girish Balachandran is the Founder and Managing Director at ON PURPOSE
The Empire Writes Back: Public Relations in the Dawn of the Global South
For a long time our industry has operated like a photocopy machine. We copy ideas, measurements and views from the Global North and then adopt them in fear of being labelled amateur otherwise.
But our lived experiences in the Global South are different. We live in cities where potholes swallow government promises. The monsoon changes news stories. A whisper in a village spreads faster than a social media post.
My name is Girish Balachandran. I run a stubborn thing called ON PURPOSE.
We don’t sell dreams to people. We help forgotten communities. When a PR expert in New York runs a campaign they ask “What’s the message?”
At ON PURPOSE when we work with waste-pickers in Bengaluru we ask “Who has the power to make change? How do we make them listen and act?” That’s the difference between doing a show and really making a difference.
How often do we see global plans fail when they meet the gloriously rich and messy reality of the Global South? In a country like India trust is shaped by who forwarded the news on whatsapp. The Western PR playbook doesn’t work here. The future of PR is being discovered and innovated upon here, in the streets of Dharavi, in the markets of Nizamuddin, in the constantly dug-up footpaths of Bangalore. Community radio, WhatsApp groups, local influencers, street art and collective talks at tea stalls. These are the channels that move people.
The West wants results in a news cycle. Real change, bloody and beautiful, takes decades, lifetimes.
The Global South has little patience for virtue signalling. At ON PURPOSE we know that campaigns that don’t drive changes in behaviour, are just noise. The only unforgivable mistake in the Global South is pretending you’re not part of the problem.
I’ve championed the Global South on world stages. In Cannes, Washington and London. I’ve noticed people often see it as a problem to be solved, not a chance for new ideas. Let me be clear: we’re not asking for help. We’re telling you that the old way is over. The Global South isn’t a problem to fix. It’s a lab for the future of communication. Why? Because we’ve been doing PR in conditions for decades without perfect environments or predictable media.
I often get asked what I think the future of PR should be. My answer is simple: bring voices from the Global South into mainstream stories. This means sharing case studies from Indore and Manila alongside Tokyo and London. It means funding research by practitioners in the Global South.
The future of PR will be written by those who understand that communication is about liberating stories, not controlling them. It will be led by those who see the Global South as a mentor.
To my colleagues in Delhi, Nairobi, Bangkok and Bogotá: stop waiting for permission.
Share your ideas. Teach your methods. Build your stages.
The empire writes back.
Its also finally learning to write its own story. I for one, am tired of being a footnote in someone else’s story. The future of PR is ours to shape, one community, one campaign, one uncomfortable conversation, at a time.