Silly season
Ah, August, the cruellest month by far for newspapers, but usually quite a good one for publicists. Circulations plummet as readers and journalists alike flit from villa to beach, and those left behind tune to Channel 4 for the cricket while they pray for something momentous to happen on the quiet watch. This year, however, […]
Rocking around the clock
They’re the people who keep the celebs in – and out – of the media spotlight. Mark Borkowski showcases the best PRs in the music business http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article298207.ece
I'M BACKING BECKHAM
Amid the advanced PR choreography of the British Olympic bid over the last few days, the most significant development has been the effective re-engineering of David Beckham’s career as an international sports statesman and roving ambassador for the country he leads on the football field. Yesterday’s press conference was a turning point. It showed the […]
SILLY SEASON
It must have been all that mud at Glastonbury: it’s got into the system and clogged up the editors’ judgement much too soon. The Silly Season isn’t meant to start yet, not while the official Season is still running. I can see the press’s point though: gorgeous Brit-Icon Kate Moss jumping into a fake marriage […]
Golden oldie headlines at Live 8
Heading up PR for Live 8 was a job for an experienced hand with all the right connections – in TV, the press, music management and with the artists themselves http://media.guardian.co.uk/marketingandpr/comment/0,7494,1521027,00.html
NEW ADDITION TO THE MEDIA SAFARI PARK
Keen ornithologists may have gathered from last year’s publicity that the rarest bird of prey in Scotland is currently the magnificent White Tailed Sea Eagle, which did at one time die out completely. Only thanks to the introduction of some breeding pairs from Norway has it managed to cheat extinction and once again roam the […]
Does this spell the end for TV pranks?
Does this spell the end for TV pranks? … stunt which will make big-name celebrities think twice about working the crowds at red-carpet events, according to the public relations expert Mark Borkowski. … http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=680282005
Jacko's silver-haired angel
PR guru Mark Borkowski on the spin battle away from the courtroom For a while there it was touch and go in the Michael Jackson trial. It should have been clearer cut than that, really. After all it was a celebrity’s word against a member of the public. And in America there’s usually only one […]
From 2001 "I was Jacko's PR minder"
I thought I had taken on the dream PR job. But I didn’t realise that meeting Michael Jackson was forbidden. From the Independent 13 March 2001 A few weeks ago, I was employed by Michael Jackson. It soon became clear that what he wanted was a PR flunkey to hand out edicts and information to […]
OH, FOR A PRIVATE BOOTH.
What on earth is Cherie Blair up to? Why doesn’t she heed the sensible and professional PR advice about how to conduct herself which must surely be on tap, given her address? But no: in every government since 1997, regular as clockwork, some tacky Cherie-scandal unfolds, invariably evolving around what we are later told was […]
Does the mighty BP really find proper journalism so threatening?
One thing which makes huge corporations especially cross is when the media advisers they assume will help protect them from bad publicity fail to exercise proper PR housekeeping and end up landing them in sheep dip. Step forward the WPP media buying company MindShare, who recently issued a memo to the effect that BP wished […]
Hello? You want payment, publicity and your privacy?
Last week’s judgment in the legal battle between OK! and Hello! threw the future of the buy-up into doubt and raised a whole new set of questions about the rights of celebrities who do deals with the media. So where does the press go from here? We canvassed expert opinion http://news.independent.co.uk/media/story.jsp?story=640284 Mark Borkowski Head of […]
RATNER & THE BOTTOM LINE
Difficult to miss Gerald Ratner at the Royal Albert Hall last week returning to the scene of the crime. The epic brick-drop which saw the Ratner brand trashed Hiroshima-style by a couple of careless comments from its Chief Executive is the stuff of legend. Ratner, remember, was being amazingly successful at the time of his […]
The Groucho Club twenty years on
Inside Story: The Groucho Club – 20 years of schmoozing and boozing From riding bicycles down the stairs to setting fire to their chest hair, Groucho members describe the club they love so much that some of them even married the staff MARK BORKOWSKI, PUBLICIST I’ve been a member since it opened. I rubbed together […]
Borkowski the secret of my success
I’ ve always been happy to take risks, and that includes inventing (and killing off) a dancing dog Read the article from the Evening Standard 28th April 2005 Download file
Is this the end of brand Beckham?
Is this the end of brand Beckham? Scotsman – Edinburgh,Scotland,UK Leading PR man Mark Borkowski, whose clients include Vodafone, Peugeot and Virgin Megastores, is more optimistic for Posh and Becks.
Who's absolutely fabulous in PR?
Inside Story: Who’s absolutely fabulous in PR? They’re the people you rely on to make your name or your new product shine in the media spotlight, but who would they pick out as the cream of their crop? MARK BORKOWSKI: BORKOWSKI PR CLIENTS INCLUDE: SELFRIDGES; TISCALI; VODAFONE; PEUGEOT; VIRGIN MEGASTORES “Unfortunately, there are no great […]
The new McDonald scam
Spring is here and with it comes news of a potentially great publicity stunt. McDonald’s intends to embrace the Urban music scene by offering an extra royalty of “between $1 and $5” to bands getting radio airplay of songs which include a reference to the famous “Big Mac” hamburger.
NOW YOU C.I.A… NOW YOU DON’T.
Oh how we lapped it up. It was just before Christmas 2003, and I’m sure the US administration felt it deserved a lovely present. I know the British tabloids did. ‘Eight months after Baghdad fell, US soldiers found the dishevelled former leader of Iraq six feet under, hiding in a hole in the ground.’ claimed […]
Confidence tricks
From the Media Weekly Independent Newspaper In the Sixties he turned hoaxing from stunt into fine art, and that’s why Joey Skaggs is Mark Borkowski’s mentor