VIVA Heather Mills

I don’t mean to bash HM but reading this mornings tabloids it’s difficult not to comment on her latest PR action. I was shocked to see Heather Mills McCartney across the media today in the guise of ambassador for Viva – (Vegetarians International Voice for Animals). When a celebrity is so high profile and under fire like Heather M.M is, what possessed her to do a raising awareness stunt so soon after her television outburst? I know small charities struggle to get attention and embrace celeb endorsement but on this occasion it has backfired. I am sure HM is a committed supporter of VIVA but the timing of the stunt was not thought through.   What possible value could the charity gain out of this?  The media  made very little comment about Viva’s charitable issues, instead criticized Heather’s hypocrisy –  firstly concerning the poster campaign “you haven’t got a leg to stand on” when Heather had a few weeks earlier complained that the media made jibes about her condition, and secondly, her comments about meat and dairy livestock producing more greenhouse gases than the world’s transport system, after she’d been chauffeured 100 yards in a petrol guzzling 4×4 Mercedes.  The amount of column inches is impressive but I didn’t understand the issues. It was a negative counteraction that deflected from the key issues. I spent more time trying to find out what Google said about VIVA‘s charity position. Oh maybe that was the point of the exercise, a covert plan to crucify HM for the greater good of the charity brand.