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In a PR360 session focused on the challenges associated with culture wars, Celia Richardson, director of communications and marketing at the National Trust, gave delegates advice shed taken from a political podcast.

According to the comms director, the advice was: Dont close down attacks on yourself too quickly when you are being attacked for doing the right thing.

She believes the approach offers a helpful way of having a conversation about what an organisation or brand stands for. For the National Trust, it allows the team to talk about the organisations mission that nature, beauty and history are for everyone.

Richardson, whos led the comms at the biggest conservation organisation in Europe for the past five years, told delegates that culture war issues are now part of the territory.

The National Trust has been getting shells from the print media for years, she said.

The idea is we are pandering to minorities, the idea is that weve gone woke, that we are no longer who we were, and we are a great breeding ground for culture wars.

Richardson later said: If you work on anything like climate, or if your organisation is vociferous or even just open about ED&I these hot-button issues that can be devisive you have to accept its how we live now, its part of the terrain.

She added that these challenges are no different to logistically or financial problems for brands and comms teams.

Its part of the industry we work in now get ready if youre the sort of brand that might be attacked.

Richardsons advice when facing challenges or attacks is to remember brand values.

How can you use this situation to serve that purpose? I think thats always got to be the question when you hit obstacles. What might you learn from this? What might you gain from this?

She also advised delegates against courting the culture wars.

Richardson, who worked for Historic England before joining the National Trust, admits shes no stranger to culture wars.

According to the comms boss, the National Trust faced some of its worst controversy when it published a report on the links between its properties and places in its care with slavery and colonialism.

You have to listen to everybody, you cant start disrespecting people and getting into rows with people that disagree with you when you are a national institution, she explained.

You are there to serve everyone, whether they agree with your current pursuits or not.

But we made some mistakes we tried to reason with people who didnt want to be reasoned with.

She said: What we did learn was, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

The National Trust employs12,000 members of staff and has 40,000 volunteers across its 400 historic sites.

Richardson urged brands to listen to everyone in the organisation, saying that its everybodys job to combat the challenges associated with cultural conflicts everyone in the whole organisation has to get involved because you need a lot of different opinions and voices.

She also advised delegates to ensure senior decision-makers arent illiterate in media,becauseconsistent attacks can destabilise an organisation.

I think you have to make sure your board is exposed to whats going on in the world and if you find that they are not, then you are going to have a much harder job, she warned.

Comms professionals shouldnt block social media channels by having controversial debates online, said Richardson.

Referring to the National Trusts social media channels, she said: They are coming to look at pictures of horses, daffodils, we dont do counter-disinformation there. We try to use other places, including my personal Twitter (X), she explained.

As a director of communications, Richardsons personal account is followed on Twitter/X by journalists and politicians offering a way of actually talking to people.

I found, actually, youve got a lot more power and authority than you might think that you have as a third source for your organisation.

Youve got to be really careful, of course, because youre using your own personal channel to talk about something work-related, but I just think in the modern time you have an opinion... organisations do need a plethora of voices to speak for them and a plethora of personas.

However, she warned PRs not to debate people on their own terms and to avoid race-baiters online.

They are trying to have an ideological battle with you and sometimes they will lie and spread misinformation. Dont try and debate the ideology with them, just go for the method. Just always be clear on what youre doing and why you are doing it.

Commenting on how to handle the spread of false information, Richardsons method is to take a broken windows approach to repairing disinformation.

Repair every window, otherwise its much easier to break more windows, she said.

You know what sources are like now, you get the Woozle effect that a lie becomes the truth by sheer repetition.

So we unfortunately had to put a lot of time and effort into insisting [on] corrections to stop journalists casually reproducing [false] stuff about us. Its intensive if youre a small organisation.

When asked by an audience member if the comms team gets blamed for negative coverage caused by operational issues, she said: Yeah. Someone once said to me: You cant talk your way out of a situation you acted your way into.

Often they put the pressure on to do a U-turn when often you havent done anything wrong. I think thats one of the real dangers of being involved in situations like this.

Ive learned that sometimes, your job isnt to stop it, she explained.

PRWeeks two-day PR360 conference was held in Brighton on 8 and 9 May.

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'Don't close down attacks too quickly' National Trust comms boss on 'culture wars' - PR Week