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The acres of space dedicated to David Beckham’s move to the US is staggering even by his own standards of hype. Make no mistake Beckham has a very clever and astute team behind him that has brokered this decision and deal. The simple fact is that for Golden Balls it’s a new beginning and not a new start. If he returned to Blighty wouldn’t he have to prove himself, in the land of the free it’s the new era?

Independent 10 01 2007

PR Mark Borkowski says there has been an exponential increase in “bounty hunters”. “The number of old-school paparazzi, those who have a good relationship …

“The number of old-school paparazzi, those who have a good relationship with PRs and their clients, is very small indeed. Now we have people who seek a quarry. These are people with no photographic skills. It’s all about getting the picture. Digital technology has changed things for people. Now everyone can be a photographer. Last year, Noel Edmonds had his picture taken by guys who had been hiding up a tree in camouflage in mid-winter for days

http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article2141635.ece
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How many public relations executives does it take to change a light bulb?

Anyone?
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Police guard sparks Kate engagement talk

The Scotsman 6th January
FERGUS SHEPPARD – Media Correspondent

SECURITY around Kate Middleton, girlfriend of Prince William, is believed to have been tightened within the past 48 hours.

Mark Borkowski said: “Many newspapers have cut back on their picture desks over the years and there are more very clever freelancers.

“Some of them, with the right impromptu picture of Kate Middleton syndicated – even if it is not taken up by a publication here – would earn enough to keep the average man, woman and child in this country in a life of luxury for the next year.”

http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=27772007
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Two paths that come together on one journey shape a new dimension of meaning and possibility, a co-creation of power and passion. This isn’t a half baked, hippy Eastern Mantra, but a communication paradigm. When an advertising idea shapes up into brilliant opportunism, we all turn and chuckle and wish we had had the same idea. Thus the comedy duo, Johnny Vegas and his sidekick Monkey, return to our screens as the new faces of PG Tips.

The pair was created for the adverts for the now defunct ITV Digital. Those who can remember must agree that the ad campaign was far better than the ITV proposition itself.

The media is obsessed with comebacks and gawd knows we have had a few, and perhaps the most potent has been my own client, Noel Edmonds. So twisting the arm of PG to see sense and rebirth the Vegas Monkey is genius, and the media space it has generated has been as prolific. More interesting than Britney Spears without any knickers on a blind date with Justin Timberlake

PG Tips has been struggling since the PC brigade killed off the performing chimps that first graced our screens, coinciding with lions leaping through hoops during the Chipperfields Christmas Circus TV special. Commercials featuring PG Tips chimps first hit screens in 1956 and were finally dropped in 2002 as part of a bid to make the brand more “contemporary”.

The woolly puppet will become not only a mascot for the brand but also the toy business, with doubtless new additions of the monkey to its shelves. When ITV digital croaked, a custody battle over Monkey ensued between administrators, Deloitte & Touche and Mother, the ad agency that created him. But that didn’t hinder Monkey’s return. A truly great idea never dies, and will always generate publicity. Not all ideas take off or last, and advertising companies are all too often reminding clients of this. It’s common knowledge that PG has high hopes for this campaign, and need it to succeed and the Monkey proves that a great piece of content will always stand the test of time.

The hysteria that is surrounding Kate Middleton today has resulted in various PR’s connected to the Palace asking for her to be taken out of the centre of this tornado. She has been pursued by avaricious photographers who are capturing her every move. Unless someone has actually been in the centre of something so news worthy, they can’t understand how horrific it is to be chased by so many photographers. Starlets crave it, but when it covers every part of their lives, it becomes a cancerous sore.
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It is a strange day and age when a panty flash courtesy of Playboy pin-up Pamela Anderson is considered modest by all accounts. But yes, move over leaked sex tape, the paparazzi crotch shot is here. If 2006 signified anything in the world of the chav celebrity, this is it. It has become the boldest career-boosting trend to date, with contestants for the best shots going to Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. The first crotch shots ignited a flurry of bloggers around the world to debate their authenticity. Posted comments included a number of photoshop experts who claimed the shots of Lindsay Lohan were definitely fake, leg and vag being merged together via photoshop. This could explain the “deformity” argument. However, when Lindsay Lohan had been caught for the fourth time in a month wearing very short skirts and no knickers, authenticity was not the topic of debate, the question was why.

It’s a new phenomenon. It involves showing your crotch to the cameras on purpose to get maximum publicity. Doesn’t seem to matter that it’s merely fuelling comments such as “maybe she didn’t have a caesarean after all!” But why this kind of stunt when all three are already always plastered over the tabloids? Is this meant to give these girls some kind of new image? Paris Hilton became infamous for exposed nether regions, and new best celebrity friend Britney Spears had to follow suit with some of the most unappealing shots of her own vag. Obviously if the pictures are intended to look “accidental”, they can’t be in perfect porn mag style, but does Britney have no pride? Some of the shots of her nether regions were downright gruesome. If you are trying to create some kind of “dirty party girl” image, don’t have a car crash for a …

As the showgirl who recovered from breast cancer returns to the British stage tomorrow, writers, performers and campaigners applaud the most triumphant of comebacks

MARK BORKOWSKI, PR CONSULTANT

I think she certainly is a modern, popular, cultural icon. To a certain extent she is a pop entertainment phenomenon that transgresses a generation and sexuality. She’s a doyen to the gay culture and she’s someone that young girls look up to.

She’s wholesome, she’s fresh, she pushes sexual boundaries to a certain level and never crosses them. She’s never vulgar and has a high sense of kitsch and style and, in a way, she has pushed the envelope to a new area where people are trying to catch up with her.

She has reinvented herself in every generation. She started off as a soap star and has grown from there. She works her publicity extremely well in the sense that she’s never in your face and knows where the shadows are to retire to. She plays the media very well, she feels in control of it and her people are in control of it.

She chooses her moments with a huge amount of style. She is not someone who has used her private life. She chooses her marketplace to sell her image very well. There is a huge amount of sympathy for anyone who has been struck down with cancer.

It’s an evil disease and she beat it. I think she’s a great example to lots of people who have been in that situation. Someone in the public life is as vulnerable as anybody I suppose and I think there is a huge amount of sympathy. I also think there is a huge amount of sympathy because she doesn’t seem to be particularly lucky in love either.

Her management handle her publicity very tastefully. They don’t over-egg it and have called for privacy through the difficult time and they have achieved it.

http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/music/features/article2112572.ece
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Post Christmas PETA have created a publicity stunt in the States to make global headlines. People were ticketed today in downtown Chattanooga for wearing fur, leather or wool.

Two PETA members wearing provocative police costumes acted as fashion police handing out citations while holding placards reading “Animal Skins Are a Fashion Felony”. PETA says it wants “shoppers to go faux and make fur, leather and wool a thing of Christmas past.”

PETA have staged so many publicity stunts they deserve a huge pat on the back. The charity’s activists have dressed up as chickens, rats, carrots, rabbits, priests, even Santa Claus to make a point. My favourite PETA stunt saw Pamela Anderson the TV babe unveil a poster for the animal rights group during a visit to Vienna. The poster showed the actor clad in a bikini made of three lettuce leaves. It read “Turn over a new leaf: Try vegetarian.” Another high was when they used a former Penthouse model to promote vegetarianism by wrestling in a vat of tofu in cities across America.