Risky Business: The Podcast
For anyone who couldn’t make the event I took part in at the Cass Business School the other week, Risky business: Risk and Reputation, you might like to know that Lloyds and Editorial Intelligence have made a podcast of the discussion, which featured myself, Kamal Ahmed (Business Editor of The Sunday Telegraph), Lord Levene (Chairman […]
Sorry Seems Not to Be the Hardest Word!
Well, dip me in honey and feed me to the bees – Tiger Woods said sorry! He actually said sorry! It is fair to say that I am eating my hat as I type this. I honestly didn’t expect an apology at all, as anyone who read yesterday’s blog will know. Today’s media happening, although […]
Responses
The blogs I’ve been posting over the last few days have stirred up a certain amount of comment – the one on Tiger Woods has even spread as far afield as India, as this article on the India Today website shows. The blog discussing the debate I participated in on Monday has stirred up some […]
Tiger: Out of the Woods?
Tiger Woods is preparing his comeback and the first step on his road to recovery is taking place tomorrow. It’s not clear what the event tomorrow morning is, other than it isn’t a press conference. Many are suggesting that it will be a day of apologies. I’m not convinced. It may be speculation, a leap […]
Celebrity and the Dying Art of Debate
I took part in a debate at the University of Westminster last night alongside that wily old fox Max Clifford (the second time I’ve shared a stage with him – it always makes for an interesting experience) and others, discussing Celebrity Brands: Desire, Dollars and Danger? It was a rather curious and disappointing night; most […]
Poster Apocalypse
A week is a long time in politics, so six months equates to an eternity. Just ask David Cameron who, six months ago, looked to be a shoe-in for the next Prime Minister. I’ve been up in the smoke all week and the conversation, from left and right, is dominated by the possibility that the […]
More on Terry
I was asked my opinion on the John Terry affair by the Independent a few days ago, alongside Phil Hall, who has been drafted in to look after Terry. We found ourselves in agreement on the way footballers deal with problems and the people they surround themselves with. Here’s an excerpt from the article: “The […]
For the good of the sport: Football, charity and PR
I watched some of the Super Bowl yesterday, still reflecting on the difference between British and American footballers in the wake of John Terry’s spectacular PR meltdown last week. I think I’ve now spotted the one major difference between the two breeds of footballer on either side of the Atlantic: the British footballer, at the […]
No Sport Please, We're British
What a depressing week for lovers of football. What a sorry, sad, insane mess played out by fools and halfwits. Ordinarily, the focus would have been on the big game, Arsenal v. Chelsea. Instead, this weekend, our interest in the game will be for all the wrong reasons. So, instead, I have decided to focus […]
John Terry and the Future of Football
The question of whether or not John Terry should be stripped of the England captaincy after recent revelations is irrelevant. There are bigger issues at stake in the world of football. If we’re to learn one thing from the wretched saga surrounding Terry it’s that it is not his career and reputation that faces a […]
Who Will Decide the Future of PR?
Given the current debate surrounding PR, PR spam and how to further the better practices of PR in the 21st Century, the news that 3am has fallen out with Peter Andre’s management, CAN Associates because CAN wanted to control every aspect of a minor story about Andre teaming up with a coffee emporium can’t have […]
Brangelina, branding and adoption
The more we hear from the endless Brangelina rumour mill and the less we hear from anyone officially representing the couple, the more likely it seems that there is some truth in the suggestion that their long romance with the tabloids and each other is over. But in amongst the suggestions that they’re losing it […]
Looking For the Real Mad Men
I hope you’ll forgive me a brief bask in the news that The Fame Formula has crept back up the Amazon charts and is currently at number 4 in the Film and Performing Arts Bestseller list, as well as moving slowly back into the running in the overall chart. It certainly seems like the Fame […]
The Cadburys Takeover: Dairy Milking?
Over the years, my company has worked with a great many heritage brands – from Horlicks to Gordon’s Gin, Hovis, Selfridges, R White’s Lemonade and of course Wispa. I understand, as a consequence, that these sorts of brands – usually on the back of iconic advertising campaigns and careful PR that pushes all the least […]
Russkat: The New Brangelina?
The Independent requested my opinion on the hotting up of the Russell Brand and Katy Perry romance – and more particularly the way they are being aggressively pushed into a Brangelina-shaped hole. Or should that be RussKat, as the Independent puts it. To read more, click here…
PR Spam: The New Chlamydia?
Is PR spam the new chlamydia? Certainly it’s being fulminated about an awful lot as the latest social disease that may have infected us all, although we’re too often too ashamed to check out the symptoms.
The Ross Ultimatum
Speculation surrounds the departure of Jonathan Ross from the BBC after 13 years – did he jump or was he pushed?
The Fame Formula On the Record
I’ve had a dose of New Year cheer after yesterday’s blog – I’ve just learned that the episode of Eric Schwartzman’s wonderful weekly podcast On the Record, covering all the latest issues in the world of PR, in which I discussed The Fame Formula, is the second most popular download of last year. Most cheering […]
Same Old New Old Year
I spent a little of last night, as the festive season faded and a whole new year and the return to work hove into view, watching the latest iteration of Celebrity Big Brother wipe it’s arse across my TV screen. As the usual array of desperate people, half-arsed film heroes and one hit blips on […]
Raging and plotting against the machine
It’s been interesting to be following pre-Christmas sales on the internet for the last three or four days, for two reasons. One reason is personal – my book, The Fame Formula, has leapt up the Amazon sales chart by several thousand places in the last three days. The other reason is that I’ve been watching […]