Austrian cellar man hires PR firm to “soften monster image.”

Josef Fritzl, the Austrian man who kept his daughter locked up in a cellar for 24 years and fathered six children with her has hired a PR agency to improve his image. Fritzl, who is currently under arrest in Austria and faces charges of rape and murder, has publicly complained about the press portraying him as a “monster.”

The Austrian PR firm involved has admitted that it faces a daunting task - “Clearly the Fritzl brand is tarnished right now, but what we intend to do is focus on the positives,” stated a PR consultant for the company who asked to remain anonymous. “We are thinking of portraying him as a kind of loveable, whacky rogue – who perhaps took things a little too far,” he added. Meanwhile, Fritz’s lawyer is pushing for a plea of insanity on the part of Fritzl, something the PR firm believes could work to their client’s advantage.

The Vienna-based marketing company (which cannot be named for legal reasons) is currently preparing an advertising blitz, which includes stickers featuring the house where the gruesome crimes took place – the stickers read “You don’t have to be mad to live here, but it helps.”

However, the PR firm has come under mounting criticism for taking on this controversial client. “This is just disgusting,” said a policeman involved in the case “The fact that this man is complaining about his ‘monster’ image really says it all.”