Hunky Vlad, slim Sarko -- playing with PR fire

LONDON, Aug 24 (Reuters) Time was, all a politician had to do to look good was kiss a baby. These days, projecting the right image is getting a whole lot more strenuous.

From Russian President Vladimir Putin being photographed bare-chested and muscle-bound fishing in a river, to French President Nicolas Sarkozy paddling a canoe in his swimming trunks, fitness and action are the political order of the day.

Get it right, and the publicity can be winning -- Putin's mountain-landscape poses have been a hit among female voters at home, according to Russian media, and have apparently struck a chord amongst the global gay community as well.

Get it wrong, and it can be rather like a balloon bursting.

The French magazine Paris Match, which carried the photographs of Sarkozy in his canoe, has been accused by a rival magazine of airbrushing the photos to erase the 52-year-old president's love handles and make him look more trim.

Paris Match, owned by a close friend of Sarkozy's, is not commenting, while the president's office has denied it made any request to have the bulges retouched.

Whether there will be any political fallout from France's mini-scandal remains to be seen, but those who brand the famous for a living say it's unlikely to give a moment's pause to the booming industry of burnishing politicians' images.

PR BUSINESS ''There is a flowering of very influential, very powerful agencies, particularly public relations agencies, that are ploughing their skills at image making and propaganda into unusual places, including politics,'' said Mark Borkowski, the head of Borkowski PR, which handles some political clients.

''America honed political propaganda via television in the 1950s and 60s, for example the way the image of Kennedy was sold, and now other countries are buying into the process because of the Internet and the power of images.'' It's not for nothing that Bill Clinton was frequently photographed jogging while U.S. president, a trend kept up today by President George W. Bush and by Sarkozy himself.

Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, a media magnate who knows the power of TV, was often photographed open-shirted on the beach into his late 60s. He admitted having a facelift and a hair transplant to keep his image youthful.

In Britain, Tony Blair marked a sea-change when he came to power in 1997, projecting a youthful, active personality in stark contrast to some of his predecessors. Later on in his time in office, however, doubts were raised after he was photographed in swimming trunks on a boat.

Indeed, towards the end of Blair's tenure, his perceived fascination with the trappings of celebrity was seen as enough of a liability for his successor, Gordon Brown, to make a virtue of a much less flashy or photogenic, more down-at-home style.

A TONED BODY CAN'T HURT ''I don't necessarily think it's a good idea for politicians to pose naked for photographs,'' said Dylan Jones, editor of the men's fashion magazine GQ.

''But if they're going to be snapped on holiday it can't hurt their public image to possess a body that their countrymen aren't embarrassed about. I'd rather my leader had a body like Putin ... It shows discipline.'' Putin's ruggedness -- in another photo carried on the Kremlin Web site he was on horseback in a sleeveless t-shirt -- may go down well in Russia where attributes of strength and resilience are admired and the president can carry it off.

Image experts say problems occur when a politician tries to be something that he or she quite patently isn't.

''The public are very savvy indeed at spotting if someone is congruent or not,'' said Rasheed Ogunlaru, a life and business coach who runs an image consultancy in London.

''A politician needs to be very mindful that their image is actually in line with the person they are. It can damage them seriously if they get it wrong, if there's a disconnect.'' Former US presidential candidate John Kerry, a tall athletic Vietnam veteran who enjoys sports like cycling, famously got it wrong on the campaign trail when he tried to look and sound too knowledgeable about American football.

''It backfires when the puppet master's strings are seen,'' said Borkowski, the PR director.

''We have a very sophisticated public and media now. When people go into the process of exposing image-making and spin, when it is shown not to be as real as it seems, it can damage a politician. But anyone who puts their head above the parapet is running the risk of getting shot down.'' REUTERS PD BD1902