Bongs, brands and swimming against the tide
“So, what now for this latest dopey Olympian?” asked a headline in today’s Daily Mail, referring to American swimmer Michael Phelps’ bong-sucking faux pas. Phelps, who holds the record for the most gold medals won at a single Olympics (eight in Beijing) and the most ever golds won by an Olympian (fourteen), was photographed nursing […]
Viral Blog Flies Virgin
The Financial Times report on a blog that’s gone viral, complaining about the food on a Virgin flight from Mumbai to Heathrow, apparently written by a creative at WCRS advertising agency. They asked me for my take on the matter. “…some bloggers … suggest it was a viral marketing campaign by Virgin, a charge the […]
Brad Thinks Publicity's the Pitts
Dear old Brad Pitt. In an interview with Newsweek in the US this week, prior to the three-ring Oscar hoopla, the star says he’s sick and tired of the media focus on his relationship with Angelina Jolie. The actor hammers his point home throughout the interview, clearly believing the odd notion that his private life […]
Reality Show Rehab: Car Crash TV
The ghost of Barnum is stalking TV land, as a new show displaying the dark and slightly freakish side of celebrity seems to be proving: Living TV’s Rehab. And some less-than-A list celebrities are queuing up to take part. One, who was turned down, was apparently eager to get on the show and discuss their […]
The BBC and Aid for Gaza
Listening to Mark Thompson on this morning’s Today programme, justifying the corporation’s decision not to allow the broadcast of an appeal on behalf of the Disasters Emergency Committee for Gaza, I was distressed. The thrust of his argument was that he didn’t want the BBC’s impartiality being damaged. I am not sure about the semantics […]
Cutting Back in the Ramsay Empire
Gordon Ramsay’s given up his flak-managing flack Gary Farrow as part of a series of moves that see him scaling down his spending and financially restructuring his massive empire under the management of his father-in-law, Chris Hutcheson. This may come as something of a blow for Farrow in these recessionary times; his skill with crisis […]
Little Chef Shafts Big Chef
When über-chef Heston Blumenthal III was asked to wave his magic wooden spoon over the roadside diner Little Chef, I raised my eyes to the gods. ‘What a gift for the production company,’ I thought. ‘Brilliant fly-on-the-wall telly at the expense of a tired old brand; we’ll be chuckling all the way to bed.’ How […]
Rebecca Adlington to be new face of Speedo
British Olympic gold medallist Rebecca Adlington will be announced as the new face of swimwear brand Speedo on Thursday, according to the Telegraph. Adlington will join Michael Phelps, who won a world record eight golds at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, as Speedo’s official face of the world’s biggest swimwear brand. Phelps has been sponsored by […]
Winehouse in good publicity shock
All publicity is good publicity, the cliché tells us. In fact the cliché jumps up and down and insists that this is so and has been known to stamp its foot if anyone disagrees, as news from St. Lucia proves. The Caribbean island, as any celebrity-watcher should be able to tell you, is the latest […]
Dark Satanic Press Release Mills
A new year, a new American President, a new sense of austerity and asperity pervading the world and yet still no sign that sections of the PR world are little more than spam-merchants, pumping out press releases at the mill without any thought or caution, any sense of building the brand. Press releases promoting all […]
The Sexy Factor
Femail Magazine January 15th 2009 Rachel Porter asked a panel of experts to give their waspish views on Cheryl Cole, Dannii Minogue, Kelly Brook and Amanda Holden, on which of the four should be crowned the queen of reality TV. Mark Borkowski, PR guru and author of the Fame Formula, a history of the Hollywood […]
King of the High Street risks repeat of a reality TV disaster
That is the risk Sainsbury’s chief executive Justin King seems prepared to take after leading his supermarket through the economic storm to record its best Christmas ever while most rivals struggled. With King tipped to return to his old stomping ground of Marks & Spencer to replace outgoing Sir Stuart Rose as chief executive, the […]
Ronnie O' Sullivan says snooker has gone to pot
The protagonists dress as if they were auditioning for jobs as cruise ship entertainers. The atmosphere has all the excitement of a wet Wednesday in Bognor; as for the pace of the game itself – well, put it like this: a bad game on a slow day makes the average funeral procession look like the […]
Prince Harry and the Racist Remarks
How disappointing to read about Prince Harry’s use of racist language in the press over the weekend, not so much because it’s Harry – it’s no surprise, really, that he’s prone to calling people ‘Paki’ and ‘Raghead’ in fun, given that his idea of fun has seen him dressing in Nazi uniform for parties – […]
Morris Man Crisis Meets Disney Orgy
Yesterday, searching online, I rediscovered the pornographic Disney poster, The Disneyland Memorial Orgy, from 60s counterculture magazine The Realist and started to think about the ways in which brands operate in the 21st century. Looking at this poster, as well as at an article in the Telegraph suggesting that Morris dancing could die out in […]
A Year of Change
2008 has crunched to a close and, this morning, large parts of Britain have woken to a clean sheet of snow, covering most of the names and ideas that haunted, plagued or invigorated us last year. Buried under that sheet are names, soundbites, happenings, ideas and all the briefly-gripping themes that cluttered up 2008. All […]
Pope Benedict latest PR mistake
Is there any modern communicators walking the corridors of the Vatican? Clearly, 21st century media advice is in short supply. Was the Holy Father made aware of the dangers in his end-of-year speech to senior Vatican staff? There has been some unfortunate fallout this morning, after his decree that “saving” humanity from homosexual or transsexual […]
Fame for nothing: how the Iraqi shoe chucker will be remembered (or not)
“Shoe-throwing man is now his brand–He should be sent all over the world to throw shoes at people we don’t like.” — Mark Borkowski on how the Iraqi reporter who threw his shoes at President Bush can create tongue-in-cheek commercial gain from his fleeting fame Listen to show
A Festive Message
What a year it’s been! But now is not quite the time to reflect on that – now is the time to pause for breath, kick off your shoes and relax as the tsunami that is the festive season subsumes you entirely. Enjoy it! You might spend the next few days watching the new Wallace […]
Grasping the New Communication Nettle
In previous recessions and downturns, many companies came to realise that the only way to steer themselves away of the maelstrom was to turn to the steadying ship of good PR. Perhaps Bill Gates’ aphorism – “If I’m down to my last buck, I’ll spend it on PR” – should be embraced as the mantra […]