PR firms seem to do a lot more than foreign lobbying and propaganda, and seem to be engaged in active manipulation of clients' populations.
In South Africa, UK PR firm Bell Pottinger was engaged by the Gupta family to promote their (widely reported to be corrupt) interests. Direct protests against the PR firm, including by South African expats in the UK, and SA-owned clients led to Bell Pottinger dropping the Guptas. Nonetheless its been widely reported that Bell Pottinger's strategy included fomenting racial division in order to divert attention from President Jacob Zuma and the Guptas. By many accounts, they have succeeded.
I'm sure that this sort of thing has been going on for decades, but it is notable that the victims of a PR firm (the South African public) were able to turn the tables and force a first-world PR firm into damage control mode.
Apart from the other points, I feel that this would have the opposite of the intended effect. The existence of morality police would compromise other motivations to be moral, in the same way that offering small amounts of money for blood donations causes donations to decrease (because the social kudos from doing it for free is a larger reward than the money).
In South Africa, UK PR firm Bell Pottinger was engaged by the Gupta family to promote their (widely reported to be corrupt) interests. Direct protests against the PR firm, including by South African expats in the UK, and SA-owned clients led to Bell Pottinger dropping the Guptas. Nonetheless its been widely reported that Bell Pottinger's strategy included fomenting racial division in order to divert attention from President Jacob Zuma and the Guptas. By many accounts, they have succeeded.
I'm sure that this sort of thing has been going on for decades, but it is notable that the victims of a PR firm (the South African public) were able to turn the tables and force a first-world PR firm into damage control mode.