Play Down/Play Up and Spin Doctor

"Play down how fattening it is and play up its taste"  (One P.R. man to another)

There are two phrasal verbs today: Play Up and Play Down.  They are antonyms, meaning they have opposite meanings. Play Down is probably the more common of the two, so I will begin with it.  It means:
To try to make something seem less important or significant than it is. 


The Government has tried to play down the importance of the minister's resignation.
The spin doctors are playing down the significance of the charge.
 He is a very humble guy.  Although he is extremely talented at a number of things, he always plays down his accomplishments. 


Play Up means:
To emphasize or exaggerate something in order t o make someone or something seem to be more important. To be a booster of something.  or to make something more easily noticed. Often something is played up in order to gain an advantage.
 
The director tried to play Ann up, but she was not really a star.
Try to play up the good qualities of our product.  
The press played the scandal up so much that everyone became bored with it.  
The report plays up the benefits of the plan, but doesn't say much about the costs.  
Instead of being defeated by her cancer treatment, she played it up, even showing off her bald head at work.
She played up her commercial know-how for all she was worth.
He plays up his ability to play guitar every chance he gets because he thinks people will be impressed.

Notes: Both are transitive  and separable [optional]
Synonyms for Play Down: minimize,make light of, underplay, underestimate, make little of
Synonyms for Play Up: exaggerate,(over)emphasize, embellish, highlight, draw attention to, stress,overstate,overstress,embroider,inflate, lay on(thick), amplify

I have a piece of slang for you today; Spin  Doctor (noun), which means:

A person who publicizes favorable interpretations of the words and actions of a public figure, especially a politician. A person who provides a favourable slant to an item of news, potentially unpopular policy, etc., esp on behalf of a political personality or party. A public relations person who tries to forestall negative publicity by publicizing a favorable interpretation of the words or actions of a company or political party or famous person.   Spin Doctors try to play down or play up a situation, person, policy, etc., whichever is to their best advantage. 

 

His title is Director of Communications but he is just a spin doctor"

Whenever there is an industrial accident you can expect the company spin doctors to arrive to deliver the best possible appearance for the company

 

Synonyms: spinmeister, media flak, public relations person - publicist, propagandist, PRO, PR man, public relations officer, press agent,

This is of American origin and came about during the 1980s, when the need for 'sound bites' became pressing enough to require a new class of publicist to provide them. The earliest printed references are from that period, For example, this from The New York Times, October 1984:

"A dozen men in good suits and women in silk dresses will circulate smoothly among the reporters, spouting confident opinions. They won't be just press agents trying to impart a favorable spin to a routine release. They'll be the Spin Doctors, senior advisers to the candidates."

So, why 'spin'? For the derivation of that we need to go back to yarn. We know that sailors and other storytellers have a reputation for "spinning yarns". A "yarn" is a fictional story or tale. Given a phrase in the language like 'spin a yarn', we might expect to assume that a yarn was a "tall tale" (very hard to believe) and that the tellers spun it out.  From there it is a small step for the people employed in public relations to weave reports of factual events into palatable stories to be called 'spin doctors'. It is also possible that it means the spin given to a ball in various sports to make it go in the desired direction.    I actually personally prefer this last possibility for its origin.  Spin Doctors are good at putting the "right spin on things" so that it goes their way.