The Ghost Twitterer
Twitter is the place on the net to have fun with publicity, as a brilliant new Halloween stunt, featured in The Sun, proves beyond doubt. “Twitter users will get the chance to communicate with departed showbiz stars this Halloween — in the world’s first online séance,” proclaims the paper. “Tweeters can choose which of their […]
Popularity Politics
Accused of not letting slip any details of policies that would be employed should they form the next Government, the Tories came out in surprisingly brave style yesterday, thanks to George Osborne. He may have the charisma of a financial director of a small engineering firm in Colchester, but Osborne has been the boldest politician […]
Brand Immortality & Looting the Dead
Celebrity death is best done young, or youngish, whilst all the characteristics that enamour the public to them remain intact. It’s not great for the celebrity in question, perhaps, but certain brand-builders love a good image that’s been soused in aspic and preserved for an eternity of milking. Take Michael Jackson, whose death has seen […]
The Bra Necessities
The Swedish military certainly have a way with a publicity stunt, if the story that’s surfaced about poorly designed military bras is anything to go by. Or so my churnophrenic state of mind is telling me, as I dig unceasingly for the truth behind the news. Put it this way, if it’s not a PR […]
Strictly Come Politics: Ageism, Ballroom Dancing and the Conference Season
Nick Clegg’s been getting a great deal of attention in the press at the Lib Dem conference this weekend. What I’ve taken away from Clegg’s conference manoeuvres, however, has not been the substance so much as the style in which it is presented. But then it’s been a weekend of style over substance: 30-year-old Alesha […]
Snapshots of the Past
A bumper day for picture stories in the Telegraph. First up, there’s the photo op for the launch of the Guinness Book of Records, which shows that the Barnum model of photo opportunity has never gone away – this picture of He Pingping, the Mongolian man, who, at 2ft 4in, is the world’s shortest man […]
Court Short
The sudden turnaround in fortunes, in less than a week, of Guinness family member Clare Irby, who started the week as a brazen hussy wreaking havoc on an airline and ended up pretty much exonerated, owes as much to the way the freelance agencies pushing stories out of the courts operate on the zingy and […]
Gordon Brown and the Jinxed Career
Gordon Brown is jinxed. At the Number 10 reception to mark the second anniversary of the Prime Minister’s Talent and Enterprise Taskforce, Perri Luc Kiely, the frizzy haired 13 year old dancer with Britain’s Got Talent winners Diversity, took a tumble, hurt himself, burst into tears and is now taking top billing in the press […]
Churnophrenia: the News Disease
Maybe I’ve reached a midlife crisis of confidence in the news, given how long I’ve worked in PR, but the more I read the papers or listen to the radio these days, the more I find myself considering the underbelly of the stories that I’m hearing and pondering on who exactly delivered a particular story […]
The Eccentric Orchestra of LA
My old friend, the maverick director Tony Kaye, best known for American History X and a slew of fine music videos for Johnny Cash and the Red Hot Chili Peppers amongst others, is looking to bring the strange and unusual back into music by holding an open audition in Los Angeles for any musician this […]
Exploding with Energy Drinks
Lucozade is going through PR hell at the moment, in the wake of lurid headlines such as “The Lucozade Bombers” referring to the thwarted plot to blow up seven planes with bombs concealed inside bottles of the energy drink. The Guardian asked me what I though that Lucozade would be doing about it, in an […]
All the President's (Short) Men
What is Nicolas Sarkozy’s problem with his height? He can’t seem to go a week without turning up in the press reportedly wearing a pair of stacked heels and standing on tiptoe in an effort to make himself feel taller – be it next to Barack Obama or factory workers in Normandy. His latest stunt, […]
Dissecting the Spin Doctors
I’ll be taking part in the Radio Academy debate on Spin Doctors in the Gibson Building in Rathbone Place next Wednesday at 6.30 p.m., joined by Katie Hopkins, who founded her own consultancy after saying ‘No’ to Alan Sugar in The Apprentice, and the politicial blogger Guido Fawkes. The chair for the event is Jeremy […]
Fixing the Polls
Bearing in mind what I wrote in yesterday’s post about transparency and trust, it doesn’t really help that there are still PR firms out there who will go to any lengths to be popular. Seventy Seven PR recently put up an adhoc poll to find out which PR firm people admire the most. A nice […]
Of Sweat and Politics
Politicians may have a lot to sweat about at the moment, but the appearance of actual sweat can knock back their image management incalculably. The Guardian published a piece on this today, with reference to the MP Bill Rammell’s sweat-drenched appearance on the BBC a couple of nights ago, and asked for my opinion on […]
Truth, Nakedness and PR
A career in PR always provides challenges – certainly I am cautious about some of the work I’ve undertaken and have, in retrospect, had to face out some of the poorer decisions I’ve made, such as promoting alcopops. With this in mind, it’s interesting to see that the Climate Camp 2009 protestors have targeted Edelman […]
Lord Mandelson, Louis Vuitton and Bags of PR Hell
The Daily Telegraph’s Tim Walker asked me for my opinion, in today’s paper, on Bernard Arnault’s response to Lord Mandelson’s insistence that the Louis Vuitton bag he was photographed with last week wasn’t his… “Bernard Arnault responded with a polite “merci, mais non” when I asked him if he would care to comment on why […]
My Edinburgh
Here’s an unedited version of the piece I wrote for yesterday’s Independent, on My Edinburgh. Trawling Edinburgh Festival for the sites of my old publicity stunts, celebrated in the #Twithibition I have just launched, has been a contemplative experience. The stunts celebrated 25 years of mischief, but that was then. What is now? I thought […]
Stunts and the Art of Celebrity Maintenance
Today’s Independent features a story about stunts at the Edinburgh Festival, mentioning me and a number of other Edinburgh stuntsters, notably Malcolm Hardee. The article uses a number of the stunts that made it into my online and on the streets #Twithibition, as well as a number of more recent stunts and is a good, […]
PR Gaffes in Fashion Retailing
The Daily Telegraph asked for my opinion yesterday on the ruling against Abercrombie & Fitch, who were found to have “wrongfully dismissed and unlawfully harassed” Riam Dean, a 22-year-old woman with a prosthetic limb who was shuffled off the shop floor last year. “Mark Borkowski, a leading brand and celebrity publicist, said: ‘This is probably […]