Language is critical. City Corporation employees are not to use the phrase ‘Black Death’. Plague is to be referred to as ‘The Sneezes’. Waggoners are requested not to call, ‘Bring out your dead.’ Instead should knock offer free removal of large unwanted perishable: Cheeses, night soil, old sides of venison, granny etc.

 

Our social media strategy will mainly consist of counterblasts to puritan pamphlets. Broadcast media (Town Criers) will proclaim that The End of the World is not nigh.

 

Most importantly, there is no need to evacuate London. It’s not as if it’s burning down, after all.

 

Maintain an open. honest channel of communication between you and the public. The unknown causes a butterfly effect of whispered assumptions which in turn results in unrest and in the case of something so serious, inevitable panic – a much harder beast to control. The buy-in from the public as a result of transparent communications will allow for your advice to be followed which will minimise the amount of people making their own decisions as a result of an obvious ineffectual strategy.

 

Communication will be via poster campaigns or word of mouth – especially through the clergy who can read out information to the illiterate in church.

 

Spend money on distributing factsheets of Nostradamus’s plague advice – drink water that’s been boiled and only use clean bed linen. Publicise how city dignitaries are opting to stay at their posts – cover-up the king’s flight to Oxfordshire.

 

Put the plague into context. The Great Plague of London killed 20% of the population. That sounds bad until you understand the Black Death killed 80% in the 1300s. Change the name. The Great Plague of London is sensationalist and links the outbreak to the city. So rebrand the outbreak to “Oriental Ratflu”.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Thanks to modern science we could avoid making a dumb mistake like ordering the slaughter of the cats and dogs who would otherwise help control the spread of diseased rats.

 

But that doesn’t alter the fact that London in 1665 is a hotbed of ignorance, hearsay, and superstition. It’s a society in which theatrical display is more persuasive than the press release so aim to achieve symbolic goals.

 

One, persuade King Charles to set an example by staying in the city. Two, exhort respected professionals to follow suit. Three, organise a public hanging of a few wretches accused of bringing the plague from some suspicious overseas location. Four, host a gala benefit dinner to support the provision of heightened border controls. You get the picture – project the problem onto the world beyond and raise morale at home.

 

With fewer people to communicate to in 17th century London, you’d assume it’d be easier to get messages out. But, with high levels of illiteracy and fewer media outlets, a PR’s job would have been a tough one.

 

So, how would I have done it? Why, through the medium of flash-mobbery, of course. Picture the scene. Sickness, burning mounds of people everywhere, then all of a sudden, in different places every day, a Thrillerlike scene with out-of-work Shakespearean actors conveying all the things not to do. People who saw it would be more likely to pass on the advice, too. And, I’d advise King Charles II to return to the city – after all, if your King has fled, why shouldn’t you?