Dark public relations and the battle for Malaga’s soul

31 May

Public relations tactics in Malaga are being employed to undermine citizen activism, raising significant ethical and power-related concerns about the practice.

Malaga is a city transformed. Once seen as little more than a gateway to the Costa del Sol, it has reinvented itself over the past two decades into a Mediterranean poster child for urban regeneration.

The city has done everything right, at least on paper. It’s a city that has reinvented itself through strategic communication, brand storytelling and civic transformation. International accolades from Forbes to the European Commission have praised its quality of life and investment appeal.

Malaga is a case study in modern place branding. But beneath the sheen, something murkier is taking shape.

Citizens are being priced out of their homes. Short-term rentals are hollowing out neighbourhoods. Community-led efforts to preserve the environment and heritage are being ignored or, worse, actively discredited.

The strategic communications playbook is being flipped on its head, used not to inform or engage, but to silence and smear.

This is the argument of a new study by Andrea Castro-Martínez and José Luis Torres Martín from the Universidad de Málaga. It records the use of dark public relations in the city.

Their conclusion is as striking as it is sobering: the strategic communications function is being used to suppress legitimate dissent in favour of growth-at-all-costs narratives.

The dark public relations playbook

This isn’t the usual criticism of public relations as spin. It’s an organised effort to undermine and delegitimise citizen voices.

In-depth interviews with activists and experts, backed by media analysis and policy documents, reveal how city institutions and business interests have deployed a pattern of unethical tactics:

Exclusion from public consultation and decision-making forums.
Smear campaigns that frame activists as radical, unreasonable or politically motivated.
Disinformation using media partners reliant on institutional ad revenue.
Legal intimidation, including lawsuits and financial threats aimed at shutting down public protests.
CSR and city branding narratives are used to drown out or deflect public concern.

Citizen-led campaigns such as Bosque Urbano Málaga, Defendamos Nuestro Horizonte, and Málaga para Vivir have been systematically marginalised. Their calls for housing justice, environmental protection and civic participation are reframed as threats to economic progress.

The ethical reckoning for public relations practice

There’s a line between persuasion and propaganda. That line has been crossed in Malaga,

The choices are clear for anyone working in public relations: either we defend ethical practice, or we risk becoming architects of spin in the service of exclusion.

What does that look like in practice?

Audit your own campaigns for power dynamics. Who’s being centred and who’s being ignored?
Strengthen the civic muscle of your comms. Build space for feedback, dissent and debate not just storytelling.
Champion media independence. If a campaign relies on advertorial silence, it’s not a campaign, it’s a cover-up.
Hold the line on ethics. Because if public relations isn’t rooted in public interest, it’s not public relations.

Malaga is a warning and a call to action. Because when public relations turns dark, what’s really at stake isn’t just reputation. It’s trust, citizenship, and the soul of the places where we live.