Why do PRs carry the can?
When something goes wrong, it’s always a ‘PR disaster’, and it’s not fair, says Mark Borkowski Every now and then, someone knocks up a list of “the most unpopular professions”, and journalists get to write about themselves for a change. Hacks, to whom the prefix “seedy” now seems to have become irretrievably attached, invariably top […]
Chartered Institute of Public Relations
How do you pronounce the acronym CIPR? Let’s think. It looks like the front half of one of my favourite hotels, the Cipriani in Venice. Yes. I think ‘chipper’ is the right way to say ‘CIPR’, and a quick glance at Partridge’s Dictionary of Slang reveals that since 1837 ‘chipper’ has carried the meaning ‘WELL […]
Spin docs take a funny turn
… Falling into this last category, presumably, is PR supremo Mark Borkowski (below). ‘What on earth was the Privy Council thinking … How does one take the news that the Institute of Public Relations has gone all legit and become the Chartered IPR? Last week, after 50 years of trying (apparently), the spin doctors’ union […]
Dispatches: A riot of their own
Who says there’s no such thing as bad publicity? Try telling that to the marketing executives of Ikea today. So successful was the hyping of Thursday’s new store opening in north London, that it turned into a disaster of spectacular proportions.
KNEEL!
Not a whisper, not a word, not even an inkling. Nothing. When my mobile went ‘beep’ this morning with the hot news courtesy of my MediaGuardian alert . I was genuinely astonished. Perhaps I’m flattering myself here, but the old ears are supposed to be pretty well cued-in at ground-level, the personal radar suitably calibrated […]
Bruised, he may be. But you can't write off Max Clifford
PR: Bruised, he may be. But you can’t write off Max Clifford Fellow showbiz publicist Mark Borkowski says the Clifford brand will survive the Hamiltons’ victory 06 February 2005 http://news.independent.co.uk/media/story.jsp?story=608106 Max Clifford has worked in publicity since 1962 and has forgotten more than most media teenies know. He understands all about the really famous as […]
A new front is opened up in the cola wars: diet-conscious men
… The PR consultant Mark Borkowski believes that in the longer term, diet cola brands will have to face wider issues than whether a drink contains sugar. … By Ciar Byrne, INDEPENDENT Media Correspondent 01 February 2005 http://news.independent.co.uk/media/story.jsp?story=606545
The real sultan of spin
John Rendon is one of the most powerful men in the world, but the PR specialist rarely comes of out of the shadows Why are we all obsessed by lists? Take a look at the news agenda of any particular week and the media is full of them. This week it’s been lists of Oscar […]
A force for good: poll shows positive impact of journalism
A unique survey commissioned by Press Gazette gives the lie to the often quoted assumption that the British public does not value journalism. More than half those surveyed in a YouGov national opinion poll (52 per cent) said they agreed with the statement: “Journalism makes a positive contribution to life in Britain”. Some 32 per […]
The Reputation Terrorist
Yet another interesting snippet from the excellent Spin watch, but I wrote a feature on this issue in the Guardian two years ago. FLACKS ATTACK “DETERMINED DETRACTORS” http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/27/business/media/27adco.htm BuzzMetrics, a New York-based specialist in word-of-mouth marketing, is among the companies working to tame the internet by going after “determined detractors,” which the New York Times […]
How other PR companies make money
A Dubious Doc By Eartha Melzer, In These Times. Eartha is a writer and videographer in Washington. A ‘groundbreaking’ pre-election documentary on the ‘real story’ in Iraq smells like propaganda and has the pr muscle of Manning, Selvage & Lee behind it. Just before the election, a film about Iraq hit art house theaters around […]
Independent Media section Monday
Out of the jungle, into the trash Independent – London,England,UK … “What [reality TV] is doing is pushing people to make more considered decisions about who they are looking for to endorse products,” says PR Mark Borkowski. …
Brands and Brando
Brands don’t live on shelves or in showrooms. They don’t even live on TV screens, although you could easily make that mistake. Brands live in our hearts and in our heads, and that’s where they die too, when their time is up. ‘I’m A Celebrity – Get Me Out Of Here!’ is back, peddling its […]
The Chav pound
From today’s Independent It’s time to tap the chav pound, innit .. PR consultant Mark Borkowski is sceptical. “There’ve always been tribes to be parodied – right back to the Teddy Boys,” he says. … http://news.independent.co.uk/media/story.jsp?story=583060
Now here is an interesting theory
Hollywood brought Kerry down By Rabbi Shmuley Boteach Conventional wisdom has it that the “morality voters” who rose to such prominence in this election voted for President Bush because of their opposition to gay marriage. But that is a complete misreading of why the morality voters dumped John Kerry. In reality, the No. 1 moral […]
TWIN EMBEDS IN IRAQ
This came to my attention this morning from www.editorandpublisher.com. It’s interesting how the ’embed’ game is being played out… ‘They may not get many takers, but Iraqi insurgents in the besieged city of Fallujah on Saturday invited journalists to “embed” with them to report their side of the war. E&P reported Friday that the Pentagon-run […]
Another H and K story
I picked this tale up from the excellent www.odwyerpr.com site. I am sure this is a scam. H&K VS. DE NIRO Hill & Knowlton is handling PR for the National Italian American Foundation, which is spearheading a coalition to persuade Italy to drop its plan to award honorary citizenship to Robert De Niro. The coalition […]
MARKET SHARE ERODES FOR BRAND AMERICA
A sobering thought from the curent issue of Fast Company to beat the re election blues. MARKET SHARE ERODES FOR BRAND AMERICA www.fastcompany.com/subscr/88/open_essay.html Two recent studies of international opinion have found a drop in williness to buy products from American companies. “People felt exploited by global expansion, inundated by our entertainment products, and put off […]
Blobs of beige goo
Way of the World by Craig Brown GlaxoSmithKline, the manufacturers of Horlicks, have employed a public relations consultant, Mark Borkowski, to correct the ‘negative connotations’ associated with the bedtime beverage. In recent years pejorative expressions such as “What a Horlicks!” and “You’ve made a right Horlicks of it!” have begun to give the milky drink […]
Tales from PR Watch
This story from PR-watch found its way into my inbox this morning. I am always interested to see how the heady world of PR earns a crust HILL & KNOWLTON GETS OUT THE (LOST) VOTE The Hill & Knowlton PR firm “is working to allay any voters’ concerns in Florida’s fourth largest county amid reports […]