Mark’s words on LinkedIn – Matt Hancock entering ‘I’m a Celebrity…’ 2022
If Boris Johnson leaves a legacy on British politics, it will be his decimation of the notion that senior public servants must be serious people.Matt Hancock going on ‘I’m a Celebrity…’ is the perfect case study, but it’s unclear whether his motivation for entering the jungle is more about personal fame or a circuitous route […]
Why there will be no more Great Men
‘I’ve had enough’ asseverated Tory Grandee, Sir Charles Walker, seemingly close to tears. ‘I’ve had enough of talentless people’. Speaking to the BBC hours after the resignation of the Home Secretary, and hours before the resignation of the Prime Minister, his words struck a chord internationally.Even before Liz Truss slashed the record for the shortest-serving […]
Rob Mayhew and the universal experience of PR
A lot of people are sending me Rob Mayhew’s sketches about agency life, correctly praising how funny a performer he is and how he’s nailed the universal experience of working in Advertising, Marketing, PR and their various adjuncts. Taking nothing away from Rob, certain of his sketches are so close to home that they cease to […]
Capitalist excess swallows Coachella and the festival spirit whole
An excellent TikTok by Mandy Lee https://lnkd.in/eKcNAQks it articulates something that those of us who work in the cultural sector have long felt; that aspects of the scene have been swallowed whole by consumerism, marketing and ‘content’. Coachella was her chief target, noting that the ‘fun’ of the festival is essentially a way to lure people into […]
Elon Musk x Twitter: For The Showman, A New Stage
Commentary on Elon Musk’s grab for Twitter has ranged from its potential impact on the simmering tension between big tech and society at large to the possibility of the elusive ‘edit button’ finally being added to the app, but the reputational impact of the deal on both Twitter and its major new shareholder is equally […]
Oscars Debacle: Spare a thought for the publicists
Almost the first voice in Will Smith’s ear after slapping Oscars host Chris Rock for making fun of his wife, Jada, was his publicist. If we assume this wasn’t an elaborate stunt, this week the world may be wondering more than usual what on earth a publicist can do to influence a situation like that, […]
Will P&O Ferries get cancelled?
As the outrage over the P&O scandal reaches the point of inertia, here’s my (slightly disheartening) take: We all saw the disturbing news of P&O Ferries sacking 800 people with no notice last week and the justifiable outrage it caused. We have seen protests from unions on the docks, captains refusing to leave their ships or let […]
Propaganda thrives amid the chaos of Russia’s invasion
Every major war effort involves a degree of media manipulation. The creation of powerful images has always been a way to motivate populations in moments of conflict and gain sympathy abroad. A photo recently went viral showing an old man cradling a cat after, the post suggested, his home had been obliterated by a Russian […]
Ukraine Tragedy: Russia started battle of words and pictures long ago
As the world tries to understand and learn from these horrific unfolding events, one aspect of Russia’s vicious attack that hasn’t been interrogated to the same extent is the battle of images and words that has been a constant sideshow to the geopolitical and military developments.Vladimir Putin is no communications mastermind and is (rightly) often […]
Brewdog’s performative anarchy did not reckon with the New Rules of Fame
Brewdog’s downfall has been a long time coming. And BBC’s Disclosure exposé ensured that, even if the business continues to go from strength to strength, the reputation of its founders as freewheeling punks with progressive hearts of gold is dead.The problem is that in self-defining as renegade rulebreakers while also peddling the mantra that ‘everything […]
As the Gateway to Hell is to Turkmenistan, so TOWIE is to Essex
There’s a logic to the decision for Essex to rebrand and distance Itself from TOWIE; the county is inarguably so much more than fake tan, nouveau riche nightlife and relationship dramas. https://lnkd.in/exPc2H4iBut the decision-makers must be careful about throwing the baby out with the bath water. Firstly, they’ve tried it before and it clearly didn’t […]
New Fame Game is unforgiving
I have talked extensively about how the values of #genz and younger millennials are reshaping the concept of fame and creating new icons. Zennials such as Marcus Rashford, Greta Thunberg, Emma Raducanu and even cross-generational idols like Captain Sir Tom have built their reputations on authenticity, substance, consistency (lack of hypocrisy) and humility.As if to prove this […]
Why is Matt Hancock back in the limelight? Because penance is just a word these days
The GuardianIt seems like only yesterday that we were all enjoying the memes and videos parodying the decline and fall of Matt Hancock. The incredible brevity of his time in exile seems to strain the laws of PR physics, and suggests that the fallen minister still enjoys support at the highest levels of government.A hasty […]
Adele’s TV publicity juggernaut
The star power that Adele was able to bring together for her prime-time TV publicity juggernaut was truly something to see. In the US we saw Lizzo, Melissa McCarthy, Ellen Degeneres: the star-studded cast that went into the spectacle and its UK twin showcased the pulling power that Adele has to marshal old-school, highly engineered […]
Peloton Interactive’s Hail Mary
I have been pondering Peloton Interactive’s quick thinking Hail Mary. It’s rare for a major brand and public company to react to a communications issue with genuine dynamism, creativity and bravery, but huge credit to Peloton for their rapid response this week to what could potentially have been a reputational crisis. *’…And Just Like That’ SPOILERS* The high-end home […]
Boris’s party address shows what we value in leadership now
Boris’s speech (or should I say standup routine?) trampled on convention, political correctness and expectation with reckless abandon at the Conservative Party conference this week. For most, cycling through a rolodex of staff party jokes would not be the immediate protocol for a major leadership convention. Boris, however, seems to take a page or two […]
The return of Trump
Trump is coming back. Will he still rule social media? It’s easy to imagine that a populist without a platform is like a bull without horns—an aggressive but impotent force in a political landscape as attention-addled as our present one. Thus, some may have concluded that Trump—who has been permanently suspended from Twitter and temporarily banned […]
Nirvana Baby
There’s an epic irony to the ‘Nirvana Baby’ suing the band for exploitation for using a photo of him at 4 months old on the cover of Nevermind.As many pointed out on Twitter, the fact that in the offending photo he is grasping for a dollar bill is eerily symbolic, but there’s another currency driving […]
A new low for the American presidency in the war of images
Since its inception in 2001, the so-called ‘War on Terror’ has occasioned some memorable images from American leaders. But the most recent image to emerge—President Biden as a solitary figure, old, isolated, and presiding over the disastrous American withdrawal from Afghanistan, represents a new low for Presidential self-fashioning in the social media age. We are far […]
Marble Arch Mound is what happens when Ideas Porn comes to life
Idea porn happens when a group of people gather in a silo, usually a brainstorming situation, to develop a crowd-pleasing concept. This group gets so excited by the potential incarnation of an idea that their collective desire spirals into something almost sexual – a kind of orgasmic glee that overrides the reality of the potential […]