The BBC faces existential tremors; a long-cracking institution straddling huge fault lines. Its latest Panorama failings sat with the governors for six months. They did nothing. They went quiet. Until it exploded. Now it’s too late for cries of “putsch” or mealy-mouthed apologies. Lets face it the BBC has been battling negative headlines for years.The […]
A trillion dollars. Once the stuff of galaxies and government debt, now it’s just another Tuesday in late-stage capitalism. We used to look at that number with awe. Now it barely registers. That’s the point the number’s so big it’s meaningless. A measure of success detached from impact, purpose, or humanity.I’ve spent a career watching […]
They telegraphed the breakfast briefing for days a pre-scripted play of excuses before the inevitable tax U-turn.So by the time Rachel Reeves stepped into the briefing in No.10, we already knew the plot. What followed was theatre without tension: a Middle England headmistress defending a poor Ofsted rating, fluent in risk management and managerial calm.A […]
Just finished Andrew Lownie ‘s Entitled a brilliant, visceral dissection of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Sarah Ferguson fittingly, on the very day of an unprecedented royal announcement. Andrew stripped of allhis titles and status.The timing couldn’t be juicier. Lownie’s forensic tour through ego, privilege, and decades of embarrassment for the royal brand reads like the missing […]
In the grand theatre of public discourse, we’ve forgotten the weight of a single phrase. Words now drift about as lightly as candyfloss. Take Trump’s latest billing: standing next to Netanyahu and declaring his peace plan the greatest event in civilisation. Quite something, considering the pyramids, the printing press, antibiotics and the Beatles are apparently […]
Of course, I do not forget the lessons etched in the tablets of great PR practice. After all, I’m now a vintage publicist. Few today might recall the great Tylenol meltdown, but as the brand once again faces an existential threat, it’s worth remembering what time forgot.Back in 1982, when America woke to the horror […]
The all-consuming binfire on LinkedIn this week lit by Zoe Scaman centres on Stagwell’s work to help the Israeli government launder its image, sorry win the Hammas war. Well, of course. There’s always someone willing to spray Chanel on a corpse if the cheque is big enough. The oldest alibi in the comms trade is […]
Let me say it aloud: We face a crisis of trust in politics. It’s always the small betrayals that give the game away. Angela Rayner, both Deputy PM and Housing Secretary, allegedly dodging £40k in stamp duty. And a Prime Minister paralysed to act. You couldn’t script a better parable of political decay if you […]
The PR industry bubble loves to talk about itself. Gossip, awards, the next throwaway influencer activation engineered to blip on TikTok for 24 hours before sinking into the feed. Too often, the industry mistakes noise for impact. We live in a silo where the metrics matter more than the meaning.But, history tells us something different. […]
The media can’t get enough of Gen Z’s obsession with analogue. Dumbphones, cassette tapes, and even playlists of gloriously bad ’90s music are trending as if they hold the secret to a better life. It’s everywhere TikTok filters, magazine spreads, curated “Y2K vibes” nostalgia packaged as salvation to an age suffocated by social media.But let’s […]