October 2006

I AM TOLD IN JANE MAGAZINE THAT THERE IS ALL CHANGE IN THE HOUSE OF SIMPSON, JESSICA NOT HOMER, THAT IS!

I am told in Jane magazine that it's all change in the house of Simpson, Jessica not Homer!

It seems that she has fired her publicist and has taken control of her brand. "I am my own publicist right now." I’ve called all the heads of the tabloids. I don’t want anyone else to speak for me now. It felt good to call them, but it was hard to find forgiveness. But that’s one of my best qualities, I’m very forgiving.”

The forgiving Simpson has undertaken the hugely emotional work involved in being one’s own publicist. When the tide begins to turns its always best to shot the dog. Being a publicist can be so difficult. The excitement of representing a client up for the game can some times prove that the person is nothing more than a poisoned chalice

According to Jane magazine, Simpson’s father fired her publicist over the John Mayer John Mayer romance publicity stunt being found out. Lets see if this publicity stunt to cover the tracks of another publicity stunt will be found out as well. The old Hollywood adage that never blame your PR man might yet be a aphorism that the Simpson family should have understood before the public execution of Rob Shuter

EVEN LAWYERS FEAR FOR THEIR REPUTATION IN MACCA DIVORCE

This is London - London,England,UK
... Public relations expert Mark Borkowski said the leaking of the court papers - which may have been intended to depict Ms Mills as the victim of an abusive

EVEN LAWYERS FEAR FOR THEIR REPUTATION IN MACCA DIVORCE
Evening Standard 24.10.06
Sir Paul McCartney: divorce battle has become increasingly bitter
Lawyers have launched a new bid to repair Heather Mills's reputation after a week of lurid revelations in her divorce battle from Sir Paul McCartney.
The legal team advising Ms Mills has now turned to its own "reputation management" company to try to stem a series of leaks threatening her multimillion pound divorce claim.

Heather to campaign for battered women after claims of wife-beating
The couple's break up has degenerated into all-out war with allegations that McCartney, 64, was violent towards 38-year-old Ms Mills on four occasions - a claim he vigorously denies. The accusations were contained in Ms Mills's cross petition for divorce which was leaked to the press last week.
The decision to bring down the shutters is understood to have been taken by Mishcon de Reya, the London-based firm handling Ms Mills' divorce. The leak threatened to damage the reputation of the firm - in which discretion is paramount - while also undermining her case in the law courts.
Her divorce is being masterminded by Anthony Julius, a litigator with a fearsome reputation who also acted for Princess Diana in her divorce.
A source said today: "We are trying to serve the client's interest and it is not in [their] interest to have the matter debated in the newspapers."
Ms Mills' existing public-relations team, headed by the former News Of The World editor Phil Hall, is now refusing to discuss the split with all enquiries passed to another agency - The PR Office - which has represented Mishcon de Reya for several years.
A switchboard operator at Phil Hall Associates said: "We have to refer all calls on Ms Mills to Mishcon de Reya." Shimon Cohen, chairman of The PR Office, is a "reputation management specialist", according to its website. Mr Cohen is a respected figure in the PR world, well known for his formidable crisis management skills.

He is a former right-hand man to Tory spin supremo Tim Bell, who famously steered Margaret Thatcher to power, and has worked for Andrew Lloyd Webber and Spanish football giants Real Madrid. Hall said he had been forced to take a back seat because of the volume of interest in the case.

"We are a small team and I'm getting-35 calls a day," he explained. Whether the stories in the media will stop is another matter. It was claimed Ms Mills wants to become "a spokeswoman for battered women" by becoming the face of domestic abuse charity Refuge or of Shelter, which helps the homeless including victims of violence.
A friend told one newspaper today: "This week has been hell for Heather. Since these court papers have come out, she's become a nervous wreck.
"She is looking for some good to come out of this situation. The charities she's mentioned are Refuge and perhaps Shelter which deals with women forced out of their homes."
Public relations expert Mark Borkowski said the leaking of the court papers - which may have been intended to depict Ms Mills as the victim of an abusive partner - had backfired "spectacularly".
Mr Borkowski said: "Things have gone pear shaped, it's a campaign that has not been won. If they lose this case the stakes are very high for Mishcon de Reya. When people look back they will lump the blame on the team and not just one person

NEW PALACE GUARD

Another new character has joined the cast of the McCartney, Mills soap opera. Just like a new player breezing into the Rovers Return, this one is not there to up the viewers. It's not a ratings battle here but more of a reputation battle that continues to mesmerize a global audience of gawkers, all pushing and shoving at the bomb blasted keyhole. Today's turn of events in the divorce feud is that it is now influenced by a far more corporate and cautious figure. Journalists were told this morning that certain aspects of Mills' media relations are now being handled by Shimon Cohen. Graceful Cohen once worked under Tim Bell expect a far more business like approach.

THE STENCH OF DEAD RAT BEHIND THE HEADLINES?

Is there a stench of dead rat starting to percolate as the latest high profile drug row hits the headlines? The National Centre for Clinical excellence is once again vilified and demonised as the bogey man. It wasn’t so long ago that the highly emotional argument about Herceptin, the breast cancer drug, was raging with equal force. News coverage told how the drug was being held back rather than being openly available to sufferers in their fight against the evil disease.

This week we see a similar argument, this time levelled at donepezil, rivastigmine and galantamine – drugs which could help those suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. These drugs which could improve quality of life, will not be readily accessible on the basis of cost. Alzheimer's disease groups and charities have condemned the decision, saying it disregards the quality of life for Britain's elderly. The argument is highly emotive and it’s entirely natural that sufferers of this disease use every available means to fight for a semblance of good health, but there is another issue that is worth considering: who is the puppet master that pulls the strings and stands to benefit from this emotionally charged debate?

Step back and consider the awesome lobbying force of the drug companies who fight for lower prices for medicines and want to get them in the system as quickly as possible. PR and lobbyists for these drug industries are using ingenious means and stepping up spend in order to influence how to provide prescription drug benefits, as the debate intensifies. It can’t be ignored that NICE (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) stands in their way; if margins are to be maintained, the billions spent on research and development of medicines has to be recouped. The global PR powerhouses lend a helping hand and are happy to plunder the pharmaceutical buck. It’s one of the most lucrative and less talked about arenas of PR. These willing hands are there to accept the cash, never mind the ethics, to fulfil a brief .

NICE (The National Institute for Clinical Excellence), is crucial for the drug companies. It is an independent body made up of doctors, scientific experts and the Department of Health and was set up to give verdicts on which drugs were cost effective for use in the NHS. The government invariably accepts its recommendations. Ministers claim not to be able to influence NICE, but these documents reveal that there has been a steady and constant flow of high level executives and lobbyists from drug companies. The pharmaceutical industry contributes to the UK’s economy on a grand scale. Its total investment in research and development in 2004 was more than £3.4 billion, which equates to around a quarter of the UK’s total manufacturing industry expenditure

The Guardian revealed that multinational drug companies have been lobbying ministers in an attempt to override the independent appraisal process in order to get their more expensive new medicines approved for large scale use in the NHS. For over eight months, senior executives from 10 drug companies, who were highly critical of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE), have been meeting ministers to urge for favourable decisions on their drugs. These are well organised and highly lucrative campaigns operated on a local and global level. Consider the organisation and the budgets needed to create the required avalanche.

NICE had originally allowed Pfizer’s Alzheimer’s drug to be used, then turned their decision around saying their drugs should only be used in a minority of cases with only moderate disease. Pfizer, naturally unhappy with the turn of events, went on to claim that NICE’s methods and processes were flawed and demanded a meeting whereby all companies making drugs for Alzheimer’s could put their case forward. The documents for the meeting outlined Pfizer’s net wealth which in 2004 was over $11 billion.

If we evaluate NICE , its core role for all its bureaucratic rigour is as an “ independent organisation responsible for providing national guidance on the promotion of good health and the prevention and treatment of ill health”. This is against the interests of the drug giants who want to get their products to market as soon as possible. History has a few lessons; wasn’t thalidomide supposed to be a wonder pill? From 1956 to 1962, approximately 10,000 children were born with severe malformities including phocomelia, because their mothers had taken thalidomide during pregnancy.

One of the key PR tricks is to use lobby groups to stimulate debate, and the ever increasing use of the web has to be marvelled at ! Websites may prove to be the tool of the future for pharmaceutical disease awareness PR. Studies show that nearly 80 percent of web users have searched this largely unregulated arena for health care information, and drug companies have taken notice. More dubious practices by drug companies include developing front websites that appear to have non-commercial sponsors. For example, sites for the Erectile Dysfunction Institute (EDI) , and the Prostate Cancer Institute (PCI) were both part of the drug company Pfizer’s Viagra marketing campaign, and include links that direct potential consumers to their products. Sobering thoughts; so as the debate about the sluggishness and inconsistency of NICE takes hold and poignant hostages are produced, consider the price of crystallising opinion.

EMPTY BOTTLE WASHED UP WEST STREET

I think some poor sod has been bamboozled in throwing away a lump of cash on this "new business" guerrilla marketing exercise. Many of the punters gong into the Ivy(yup you guessed it) failed to notice this enormous bottle stuck on the corner of West Street. Perhaps there is a bigger plan unfolding?

PUNCHDRUNK 2

Looks like Lyn Gardner agrees that Punchdrunk is a cool night out here is her 5 star review from this mornings Guardian

Punchdrunk's latest piece of immersive theatre takes you to places you have never been before. Step through the doors of 21 Wapping Lane - a vast disused warehouse in the original Tobacco Dock - and suddenly London is very far away. Behind these doors lurks a strange parallel universe, a secret deep-south bar where the blues - the devil's music - is played, and a place where a preacher raises hell, and Faust raises the devil.http://arts.guardian.co.uk/critic/review/0,,1925545,00.html

Wander through the labyrinth of rooms over several floors and you may stumble across some true wonders: a high school Walpurgis night hop in full swing, a tiny candlelit chapel where the coffin of Gretchen's baby is surrounded by lilies, a bar where Mephistopheles gives Faust a rejuvenating potion and he first spots Gretchen amid the orgy of churning witchy flesh. The performers appear and melt back into the shadows as if by magic.
This is not so much a performance as a puzzle, and you have to work quite hard to unlock it. Those who like to take their theatre sitting down and in easy-to-consume, bite-sized narrative chunks, or anyone with a fear of the dark, may find the evening makes them both frustrated and anxious. Following the show can be like chasing a dream that keeps dissolving and slipping out of sight.

Either approach requires stamina, a stout pair of shoes and the ability to use your own imagination to fill in the gaps. But if you put in the graft - and go on your own, not in a gaggle or a gang - the rewards are greater than anything Mephistopheles could ever offer.
· Until November 18. Box office: 020 7452 3000.

PUNCHDRUNK AND LEGLESS

In a forgotten part of the East End is an enormous warehouse which houses quite an extraordinary piece of theatre. The space was once a data warehouse whose corridors and floors have now been transformed with a vision which would delight even the most jaded of theatre goers. The National has a huge word of mouth hit on its hands; the show, Faust, staged by Punchdrunk www.punchdrunk.org.uk has sold its six week run in a matter of days. Last night, my old pal Tom Morris took me along to see this visual delight. It's a promenade show which assaults all the senses. See, feel, taste and smell a show that has reinvigorated my soul. It's joyous and inventive and as I stumbled around floor after enormous floor of astonishing theatrics, I felt privileged to have been there. Bizarrely, so was Will Young. Part installation, part theatre, it felt like David Lynch in his prime having created a theatre show. It set my mind racing, and clearly underlines how alive event theatre still is!. Sell a vital organ on the internet so you can bribe someone to get a ticket.

BRAVO GETS PUBLICITY IN VIA CIRCUITOUS ROUTE

The papers are filled with the news this morning that Dr Curry from the LSE has predicted what the human race will be like in ten thousand years time. According to the good Doc it will be lean, long limbed, blessed with good health intelligence and creativity. I have just realised that the reason for this report was to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Bravo.

Is this an example of effective brand PR?

AMERICAN SPORT AND HOMOSEXUALITY THE PR ISSUE

American sport and homosexuality have never been the best of bedfellows. And there’s a sad and salutary lesson to be learned from the attempt by a professional wrestler called Chris Kanyon to combine the two.

After retiring from the ring to become a Hollywood stuntman, Kanyon – real name Chris Klucsarits – decided it was time to tell the world he was gay.

The macho world of wrestling, despite its fondness for muscly men in tight underpants grappling with each other, was predictably scandalised. So alien is the idea of a gay wrestler that fans had not suspected a thing when, in 2003, Chris took on the Undertaker in a bout that began with him (Kanyon) emerging from a closet – geddit?! – dressed as Boy George.

It was only this year that Chris had the not-so-bright idea of reviving his career with a publicity stunt – staging a press conference to tell the world he was gay. Well, he actually told the world that ‘Chris Kanyon’ (his

persona) was gay, which didn’t make any sense but still made a few headlines.

A month later he revealed the shocking truth – Chris Klucsarits was gay too!

Sadly for Chris, and other gay wrestlers who might be, erm, wrestling with their consciences, the public were not exactly thrilled.

Many accused him of exploiting his sexuality for a PR stunt, which it obviously was. But it backfired spectacularly. Instead of fighting for the right to sign him up, promoters shunned him in their droves. And they did so, say insiders, because he was gay. Coming out had worked against him.

Well, as the under-20s say: Duh!

No one expects men who make their living thumping each other’s heads on the floor to be the brightest sparks but Chris must have knocked out a few too many brain cells.

He made some fundamental mistakes in forgetting that not only is wrestling a macho world where homosexuality is taboo, but so is American sport in general. Indeed, so is America in general.

And while we in our all-embracing metropolis can list a whole bunch of gay icons who everybody loves – from Panto dames Elton John and David Furnish to Graham Norton and Lily Savage – they don’t see things that way in Alabama or Arkansas.

Which is why there aren’t any famous gay sports stars in America. It’s why George Michael’s career in America ended the day he went down to his local park and made friends with an undercover cop. It’s why famous gay politicians are all famous gay ex-politicians. And it’s why famous gay movie stars stay in the closet.

BACKING FOR SPOOF BAND TO THE TUNE OF £2.4M

The Times October 11, 2006
... taxpayers’ money. Mark Borkowski, a PR and marketing expert, said: “The people who use MySpace are not going to fall for this. Things ...

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2398306,00.html

Backing for spoof band to the tune of £2.4m
By David Brown



NOT since Spinal Tap spoofed the excess of the rock’n’roll lifestyle has a more surreal band been foisted on the public.
In a £2.4 million marketing campaign the Government has formed a 1980s-style rock group to lecture the public on the risks of back pain.

The band, Bäackpain, has its own profile on MySpace, the social networking website, complete with blogs, video downloads and posters. It is being promoted in a nationwide newspaper, poster and radio campaign, which will make it one of the most recognisable bands in the country.

But the attempt by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to make back pain fashionable was met yesterday with derision. The band is, of course, a spoof invented to front the HSE’s Better Backs campaign, which launched on Monday. The band members’ names should be a clue: Kylie Crouch (vocals), David Bent (bass), Stoop Williams (drums) and Ben Yorney (guitar). Perhaps the HSE was inspired by Tony Blair who played guitar in a university band and who has been troubled by a bad back while Prime Minister.

By using MySpace, owned by the parent company of The Times, to promote the group the Government is attempting to tap into the cache of the site that launched the careers of musicians such as Arctic Monkeys, Lily Allen and Sandi Thom. However, critics have derided the campaign as being a waste of taxpayers’ money.

Mark Borkowski, a PR and marketing expert, said: “The people who use MySpace are not going to fall for this. Things like this work when they are subtle and underplayed. This is completely over the top.”

Blair Gibbs, spokesman for the TaxPayers’ Alliance said: “It is depressing to think that people in authority sat down and thought this was a good use of taxpayers’ money.”

Sue Kelly, of the Better Backs campaign, said it had decided to use a rock group to avoid focusing on people in specific jobs as 80 per cent of people will suffer back pain. “We tried out quite a few different things on focus groups and found that people enjoyed the humour of the rock group. It is not a subject normally associated with health and safety,” she said.