August 2007

BLOGGERS PARADISE

I joined (late) a motley crew of bloggers who had decamped to a North London eatery the other night, gathered together by “Don’t Panic” to twitter on the subject of social networking. The posse included  Stuart Bruce – Wolfstar http://www.stuartbruce.biz/ Simon Collister – Edelman http://simoncollister.typepad.com/ Stephen Davies – Webitpr http://.prblogger.com/ Ian Delaney – NMK http://twopointouch.com/ Simon Wakeman –http://www.simonwakeman.com/blog Neville Hobson http://www.nevillehobson.com/

There’s a worry that bloggers don’t get out enough - so I suppose the encounter proved that a bunch of pasty faced geezers can indulge in interesting exchanges on life, death and the bitchy warblings of the blogosphere and have a first rate meal. The web is a hyped stratosphere and can be both boring and indulgent. However, we the bloggers really have to distance ourselves from our egos. At times the evening descended into a blizzard of jargon and references to blogs that the great unwashed would hardly bother to reference. Bloggers must not become so self indulgent that they can't see elephant traps. To meet a baleen of bloggers in a confined space underlined that although we have the skill to pontificate, we must all seek to challenge ourselves and continually develop the art of pertinent and meaningful cut through, rather than being diverted by our global cabal.

I do have an anxiety about what the 'blogosphere' is doing to the craft of PR, and more importantly, to its diminishing ethics. We touched on the sinners and the spikers but it seemed to be a subject that was not going to be truly scrutinized. For me I took away something very disturbing from the evening which was that too many PR professionals do not know what a blog is, and see it as just another peripheral tool for marketing. I was shocked to hear that but had to bow to these bloggers' superior knowledge as ones who had more direct experience of incompetent PR's.

I am preoccupied with content and delivery, because although blogging is very powerful so many bloggers don’t truly understand the issue of content. Let's also not forget the greater issue which is, who is picking up the tab for our talent? Too many bloggers are harvesting vast sums of money for voicing the corrupt opinion of their paymaster who sees the art of the blog as a vibrant tool for improperganda. John Stauber once said, "Watching the public relations industry discuss ethics is a little like watching tourists from a foreign country attempting to speak a language they barely understand. They seem enthusiastic and sincere, and many of the right words come out of their mouths, but they just don't quite manage to make sense. The problem, fundamentally, is that PR is preoccupied with symbolism, imagery and perception rather than substance"

So let's focus on enhancing knowledge and outing corruption before the sands cover the tracks of the baddies.  

HATS OFF ... THE WISPA-ING CAMPAIGN

Its not often that praise is handed out in the notoriously bitchy world of PR, but I was pleased to see read this blog today paying tribute to our Wispa campaign http://t4w.blogs.com/spinningaround/2007/08/hats-off-the-wi.html. Thanks to James Gordon-MacIntosh of Seventy Seven. James has often encouraged me to sit on panels and talk about my work and I rate the efforts of his the consumer agency which is part of Fishburn Hedges.

SMOKERS' DELIGHT

All today’s papers have reported on Winnie Langley the defiant smoker who celebrated reaching 100 yesterday. Pictured lighting up from one of the candles on her birthday cake, Winnie, from Croydon, was reported to have been smoking for 93 years and has no plans to quit just yet. Surely this is good news for the tobacco industry which is constantly having to make people aware of all the dangers of smoking. I’m sure that some tobacco industry executive saw that she was a great publicity opportunity, knowing all too well that most smokers want to believe that they will be the one to avoid lung cancer, heart disease and all the other smoking related illnesses. So Winnie is perfect to be the smokers’ icon. Here is a real person (I don’t believe she’s a fake) who admits to smoking for 93 years and is still alive and well at 100. Just the kind of boost that the tobacco industry needs.

GREY POWER

Unbelievably the “wrinklies” public image has had a face lift this morning across the media. Usually it’s a hopeless task for poor PR folk who are heroically attempting to peddle the joys of the over 60’s. Valiant attempts to sell old age often stumble chiefly because of the media’s obsession to remain attractive to the young and the cool. The barrage of hype embodies lame attempts to remain stylish - 80 it seems, is the new 40. Grey power or silver surfer, the comms world is thick with sound bytes to coerce and cajole.

Well trust me it’s all changing! In a bout of tumult, the Crinkly Rolling Stones have put two fingers up to the gaulighters of authority by smoking on stage during a gig in London. James Brown appeared to have fathered countless illegitimate children by different mothers in the last months of his life. More of the over 60’s are surfing for porn and to cap it all, even more people are having sex into their 80’s. Maybe the baby booming generation is beginning to prove conclusively that there is life before the onset of piles.

FUSS ABOUT NOTHING

Would be celebs are so transparent when trying to keep their name in the press. It amazes me just how crazy things have become when a slew of stories with the yawn factor hit the pages of the press. Emily Maitlis, shock horror, showed too much leg when she was promoting the news. Kate Moss has been spending nights at Claridges with supposed ex, Pete Docherty when he should be banged up. Ingrid Tarrant was spotted with former The Bill actor, Scott Maslen who’s about to join the cast of Eastenders. The ex marine enjoyed a drink in a coffee shop in St John’s Wood and Ingrid was said to be smiling for the first time since her divorce. Kerry Catona has bought a 150 thousand pound sports car to try to change her luck around – I don’t understand that one. Jade Goody has split from her husband Jack, and Kanye West visited a lap dancing club in London and didn’t spend any money. All great stories that I assume were written for insomniacs.

WHISPER ABOUT WISPA: NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF 1980'S NOSTALGIA

I have received a flurry of emails from fellow PR friends and journalists who have realised that Borkowski is behind the relaunch of Wispa. Many erroneously think we created an online campaign to bring back Wispa. We designed a press campaign informed by the amount of on line pressure groups that had been running for over two years, to twist Cadbury’s arm to bring back this favourite. On the last count there were 360 individual campaigns across Bebo, My Space and Facebook as well as countless YouTube sites hosting the famous eighties Wispa commercials. This organic desire, fuelled by nostalgia and empowered by a sense of fun, could not have been created by any PRs. Manipulation of the social networking sites by PRs cannot be achieved without being found out. We at Borkowski look for a journalistic hook in every story and although I have a reputation for being a stuntster, I prefer to deconstruct a brand to find out if a real story exists before a paradigm is created. Luckily we won a piece of business, a famous heritage brand, which was ripe for return. Making Cadbury confident that there was a ground swell of enthusiasm for Wispa was our overview when we had done an online audit. Too many scamsters spend time trying to originate on line campaigns which have no resonance with an online community. Unfortunately, foolish brands and their budgets are soon parted. Clearly Wispa was as story that had a hook that engaged the media. If we did one thing for the brand, it was spotting the story and bringing it alive within a media community. Manipulation of the web is very dangerous. Too many naïve PRs feel they can force public opinion by this method, but luckily they are usually found out.

LAME AND LAMER

Another lame publicity stunt this morning a youthful police constable riding a skateboard. I assume this was an attempt to make plod more cool with kids. This scam is nearly as creative as Great Western trains announcing on Monday that they are employing a poet to amuse the punters at stations around their network.

ROGUE PRS

More or less every time I sit down with a journalist these days, I hear about some more appalling PR conduct. The problem with the PR industry is that it’s unregulated, so anyone who can afford a website or a business card can set themselves up as a PR agency. That said, there are a number of companies who employ in house PRs who seem as bad as the charlatans who scavenge for business in the freelance PR world. The latest gaff involves a press exec at a record label who is representing an artist about to release a new album. The PR was trawling for interviews for their client and promised an exclusive interview to a certain magazine. However, unbeknown to the journalist, this artist had already given an exclusive interview to another journalist for a totally different publication. The PR at the record company wouldn’t or couldn’t, for reasons unknown, tell the journalist that the promised exclusive wasn’t going to go ahead which led the journalist to keep reassuring her now jumpy editor that the interview was going to happen. They were left hanging on like this for some time before the journalist confronted the PR who still claimed they would get the interview. It was only until the journalist was at a lunch with another member of the record company that she found out an exclusive had already been given to another magazine and was going to print in a few days. When the journalist confronted the PR with this new information, they denied all knowledge of the promised exclusive, then they acted confused, wouldn’t admit their error and finally just ran and hid. Actions of PRs like this make things very tricky for professionals who are just trying to do their job. Ineptitude on this level has a ripple effect throughout the business.

THIS HAS TO BE A PR SCAM

Surgically alters thumbs to better use iPhone Written by James Benfly
Thomas Martel, 28, of Bonnie Brae is a big guy. So he has a hard time using the features on ever-shrinking user interfaces on devices like his new iPhone. At least, he did, until he had his thumbs surgically altered in a revolutionary new surgical technique known as "whittling."
"From my old Treo, to my Blackberry, to this new iPhone, I had a hard time hitting the right buttons, and I always lost those little styluses," explains Martel. "Sure, the procedure was expensive, but when I think of all the time I save by being able to use modern handhelds so much faster, I really think the surgery will pay for itself in ten to fifteen years. And what it's saving me in frustration - that's priceless."
"This is really, on the edge sort of stuff," explains Dr. Robert Fox Spars, who worked on developing the procedure. "We're turning plastic surgery from something that people use in service of vanity, to a real tool for improving workplace efficiency."
The procedure involved making a small incision into both thumbs and shaving down the bones, followed by careful muscular alteration and modification of the fingernails. While Martel's new thumbs now appear small and effeminate in comparison to his otherwise very large hands, he says he can still lift "pretty much anything I could lift before the surgery - though opening spaghetti sauce jars has been a problem. That was a big surprise."

EDINBURGH FRINGE NEWS

I have a Edinburgh Fringe client that is a genuine South African Sangoma or Witch Doctor. It seems that he feels the need to ritually slaughter a live chicken on stage on the full moon next week to bring The House of the Holy Afro theatre production at the Queens Hall in Edinburgh good fortune! I am sure the SSPCA will not have any objections. The Sangoma is very sober, apparently it is normal practice in South Africa to sacrifice a white chicken to bring good luck to a first night.

GANG CULTURE

The moving speech made yesterday by the grieving Barbara Reid on the second day of the inquest into the death of her son Jessie James, touched me. Jessie was a boy who clearly did not want to get caught up with the local street gang culture, and it seems that he was murdered for rejecting the gangsters. Should all of us involved in promoting the panto style glamour of this type of street culture not reflect on our promotional tactics? Too many record labels fashion brands on this culture. Game developers blatantly play with elements of criminal activity highlighting a new wave of "gangster uber cool" to help surround a product with a sense of danger. The yoof market is so difficult to reach these days that the tactics used to generate the oxygen of hype need to anger and outrage the moral majority. Let's face it, we have all tried to wind up a complicit religious figure or a reactionary do gooder, but this is an entirely different issue. By associating this kind of culture with commercial brands that are aimed at young people, criminality and violence appear legitimized. This is no longer pushing the boundaries, nor is it a plaything of those avant garde advertising creatives, it has become real. It has become the fashion. Shouldn't PRs and marketing consultants alike consider the all too frequent consequences of being a la mode?

IT WILL BE NIGH ON IMPOSSIBLE FOR HIM TO WORK IN TELEVISION AGAIN’JACK MALVERN AND NICOLA WOOLCOCK

Chris Langham will never act on British television again, publicists predicted yesterday after the actor became the latest celebrity to be tainted with downloading child pornography.

Mark Borkowski, of Borkowski Public Relations, said that Langham would suffer a similar fate to Gary Glitter, the glam rock singer who was jailed for four months for possessing indecent images. “You can’t lift the very dark cloud that will follow his career,” he said.

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article2189530.ece

He predicted that Langham would be able to continue his career as a writer, but would never appear in front of a camera again.

Max Clifford said that it was “nigh on impossible for him to work in television in Britain again” because of public revulsion at crimes against children. “He would have more chance if he had murdered someone.”

Related Links
Langham found guilty of child porn charges
Langham is one of 7,000 people whose names were handed to British police after American authorities closed down a company that operated child pornography websites.

The British investigation, named Operation Ore, also found credit cards belonging to Paul Gadd – whose stage name is Gary Glitter – and Pete Townshend, the guitarist for The Who. Townshend, who claimed that he downloaded indecent images for research, was given a police caution and has since been rehabilitated.

Langham was found to have made two payments to Landslide Productions, an American company that ran websites containing adult pornography and images of child abuse, as far back as 1999. No images from those sites were found on Langham’s computer when police raided his home in November 2005, but officers found other footage that he downloaded using a file-sharing program.

Forensic experts found films of children being abused by adults including “level five” images, which depict torture. The footage was so disturbing that Judge Philip Statman, presiding, intervened so that the jury did not have to see more than three of the films. One female juror broke down in tears when the images were played in court.

Langham claimed that he downloaded the images so that he could confront an episode in his past, when he was sexually abused as a child. He said that he wanted to break down a door in his mind so that he could write about child abuse for Help, a television programme about a psychiatrist and his patients.

WATER WORKS

Being an (un)lucky resident of Gloucestershire, I have now been hit by the lack of water. Hundreds of families are without water and the unrest in certain areas of Gloucestershire has been caused by the lack of customer care from Severn Trent Water. The big corporation business has more loyalty to its shareholders than its customers. It’s profit that matters, not customer care. I wonder what compensation Severn Trent Water will offer for this inconvenience. Severn Trent Water closed down many of the pumping stations that are dotted all around Gloucestershire in order to centralise operations with one enormous pumping station near Tewkesbury, and Tewskesbury has been on a flood plain for thousands of years. Maybe Severn Trent should look at a PR stunt based around opening all the original pumping stations that supply all the smaller towns so the job Severn Trent are paid for would not involve the army, hundreds of thousands of bottles of water, and great inconvenience and threat of illness. Already the PR spin is suggesting that the white middle classes are finally understanding what it’s like in the third world having to travel miles just to get a bucket of clean water.

FOOTBALL FEVER

Yesterday’s Asian Cup Final in Jakarta and the repercussions in Iraq, provoked news correspondents from the BBC to claim that Iraq’s defeat of Saudi Arabia had temporarily united the divided country. Iraq beat Saudi Arabia 1-0 yesterday and celebratory gunfire was heard in Baghdad. Thousands of Iraqis had been following the match in Indonesia on TV and then rushed out into the streets to celebrate the victory all over Iraq, dancing in the streets and waving their national flag. These days, corporate sponsors of the game either forget or don’t really understand what the game of football can actually achieve. They invest money in corporate hospitality to see their brand slapped all over merchandise, shirts and banners, but they underestimate footballs’ power to unite people. The premier clubs plunder the corporate buck and entertain executives in VIP areas who have no partisan passion for the club matches they are attending. This game has temporarily unified Iraq, and VIP executives are just happy to be seen at a high profile match while their company is missing the potential of grass roots issues that surround clubs with a real fan base. If they could understand what football can really achieve, then they could magnify that passion and turn it into real wealth.