Looking at the press yesterday I saw two examples of attempts to garner publicity, one being positive and the other rather negative. The first was the launch of Halo 3 last night at the IMAX. It’s one of the most successful Microsoft games ever and its press department have obviously treated it as such and given it the red carpet treatment instead of just aiming the launch at gaming geeks and kids. Although holding a premiere is not the most creative idea, the publicity machine has tried to rise to the challenge of the world wide anticipation for the game and treated it like a large scale spectacle with Pharell Williams and Christian Slater attending the launch party. The amount of coverage today represents the decision to aim the game beyond gamers. 7 out of 10 for effort.
The other example was a sad and tired attempt by a Milanese clothing company to gain publicity at the start of Milan’s fashion week by using shock tactics in the form of a naked anorexic poster campaign. A stick thin naked anorexia victim, Isabelle Caro, who weighs less than five stone is on billboards across Italy in an attempt to bring the clothing company into the public eye. It happens quite often when unknown companies are desperate for publicity, that they go for an age old idea – this time straight from Benetton’s archives – of shocking the world in an attempt to get noticed. But the company has got this so wrong – it’s far too obvious to use the debate about size 0 in this way. I think it will rebound in their faces and everyone, press and public alike, will see it as a cynical publicity ploy to magnify the brand. The cynicism will seep into the brand and have a very negative effect, instead of the desired one.
Posted by Mark Borkowski on September 27
WHITE STRIPED PORN VIDEO SHOCK MEETS RACE RANT
The internet is full of people putting two and two together to make twenty two, not four. I’m still getting emails about Meg White and the sex tape scandal, suggesting these slightly racy pictures are the real reason why White Stripes have cancelled their world tour.
Frankly, this is an inventive pornster who has linked his dubious content to this story in an attempt to rustle up viewers and hits to his site. It’s the oldest trick in the book and I’m surprised anyone has fallen for it.
I have also been drawn to the debate raging in the U.S. over a recent photo taken by the highly talented Tung Walsh, recently printed in i-D magazine.
It has received a huge amount of feedback and according to the editorial on the website." Many people have been deeply offended by the photograph."
From this ..
Posted by: LG 8/16/2007 03:53
This is a horrible, cynical picture. As a black woman, I am usually thrilled to see a model with very dark skin on an ad. But on this one they made her look like a old caricature of a "negresse". The lipstick, the clothing, the dead eyes, the reference to chocolate cake... It's so obvious what they were aiming for with this photo. I was shocked by its blatant racism as soon as I saw it in the AA newsletter. Coming from Senegal, I have uncles who died during WWII, used as canon-fodder by the french army, and aunts who were raped by french officers. The French would often represent our people in caricatures in the same way as this picture does, as "savages" with exaggerated bright lips and dead eyes, in order to ease their conscience about raping them and sending them to death for a war that was not theirs. The message these caricatures would send was something like "Look at their faces, these people are monkeys with no brains, who cares about them". It's 2007, when I see that images like this are still being made, it feels very much like a slap in the face, a denial of the pain that many black families have gone through. No, it's not about self-parody or "taking something historically negative and turning it into something positive", or "encouraging ehtnical diversity in fashion". This picture is just plainly insulting for any person of african descent with a minimum of knowledge about the history of black people. And it's NOT up to art directors or to non-black people to decide for us that certain ways of representing us are suddenly ok and "ironic".
I am aware that AA did not produce this picture, but I think they should have protested against it and should definitely not be using it in their newsletters AT ALL. And I'm never ever again in my life going to buy an i-D mag.
To this
Posted by: Intern 4 Life 8/15/2007 11:17
To F.U. - I revel in this ad! AA fashion is encouraging a diversity of beauty and artistic expression, breaking the mold of typical Romanesque anorexic models, bridging cultures while generating a new standard of fashion. Yes, I am reveling in it! This shot would not have worked with any other brand, not A&F, not Gap, not Urban Outfitters. Try to look beyond your childish emotions and see what the pic represents - its not blackface just because her face is BLACK! his shot does the opposite of blackface, it promotes, not degrades, the essence of black beauty. PEACE!
I am intrigued, is it a subtle stunt to generate publicity and debate for American Apparel or does it signal something deep inside the U.S. psyche?
Posted by Mark Borkowski on September 24
MORE PR WOE
Recently I commented on the work of what I thought was a minority of PRs –
Disappointingly, it has provoked a steady stream of anecdotes from industry folk who seem obliged to tell me about other idiotic tales and poor professionalism in the business, all of which reflect badly on us all. It really pains me to recount them, and it’s incredulous to think that the craft of great PR is being tarnished by inept operators. It’s not necessary to disclose where they are from, but it's safe to say that the firms that pay their pay check are well known. I share two such incidents to reveal an increasing trend that might make even the Ab Fab cliché's blush.
A marketing head of a household brand summoned a meeting to review the current work of the brand’s PR consultancy. On the morning of the meeting, everyone gathered in the client boardroom but only one person out of four from the PR company turned up who relayed that the “other three couldn’t be bothered to turn up”. I can’t believe the PR company wasn’t fired on the spot; it took some months of further incompetence before the client finally gave the PR company the boot. Why do clients carry on working with PR companies that just don’t care? Another example came when a certain brand manager was given a list of journalists who had turned up to a recent launch party which included Fleet Street’s finest. The brand manager was a cynical bod, and had been unimpressed with the turnout so decided to investigate himself and he managed to speak to thirty out of the fifty on the list he’d been given. All thirty he spoke to, on enquiring whether they had enjoyed the launch, responded by saying that they had not graced the party with their presence. Worse - they didn’t know anything about the brand. When the brand manager confronted the PR company, the publicist concerned said that it was ridiculous and the journalists were obviously lying. The arrogance and stupidity is dumbfounding. If the industry is represented by this kind of shoddy, lack lustre, incompetent and foolhardy behaviour, then I’m afraid we are all doomed.
Posted by Mark Borkowski on September 21
AFTER SEVEN MAGNIFICENT YEARS, IS THE GORDON RAMSAY ERA OVER?
After seven magnificent years, is the Gordon Ramsay era over?
Chef must turn his back on TV and devote himself to restaurants again, critics say
Helen Pidd :Saturday September 15, 2007: The Guardian
For a long time he seemed as invincible as his muse, Action Man. Millions tuned in to see him lose his temper on TV, his restaurant conglomerate notched up 10 Michelin stars and his many books were constantly reprinting. But just as even the best recipes occasionally go wrong, it seems Gordon Ramsay's hitherto unbeatable formula has failed him, as a string of setbacks and bad decisions look to threaten his empire. "To use Ramsay's parlance, he's had a nasty little knee in the bollocks," said the publicist Mark Borkowski yesterday.
The latest knock came on Wednesday with the announcement that one of Ramsay's most popular London restaurants, Angela Hartnett at the Connaught, is to shut when the hotel reopens in December after a £60m refurbishment.
The official word from his spokeswoman is that the refit "was the perfect time for both parties to evaluate and explore future plans and they have mutually decided this was the right time for a change". Unofficially, Ramsay was said to be cross that the hotel expected Angela Hartnett's team to provide room service, just like any normal hotel kitchen. Hartnett is to open a new place later this year, but it is not known whether this will be under the Gordon Ramsay umbrella.
Bad news
And that's not the only bad news this week has brought.
His brother, Ronald Ramsay, was sent to an Indonesian jail for possessing heroin. For the first time in seven years, Ramsay's flagship restaurant, the three-Michelin-star 68 Royal Hospital Road, was not voted best restaurant by the reviewers of the Zagat guidebook.
This followed Ramsay's kicking in another guide, Harden's London Restaurants 2008, in which he failed to pick up the top three accolades of "top gastronomic experience", "highest food rating" and "highest overall rating" for the first time in, again, seven years.
Richard Harden, co-editor of the guide, said: "Failing some major redirection of Ramsay's energies back to his London restaurants - and away from America, TV studios and pubs - this is beginning to look like the end of the era of Ramsay's unchallenged dominance of the high-end culinary scene."
Matthew Norman, the Guardian's restaurant critic, said he was unsurprised by this fall from grace: "Someone as arrogant and narcissistic as Gordon would write this off as tall poppy syndrome. But it is inevitable and obvious that it is impossible for him to maintain standards when he is spending time shuttling between a restaurant in New York and I don't know how many in London - and is, I hear, planning to open in Paris as well.
"Everyone agrees that his flagship restaurant, 68 Royal Hospital Road, is stunningly good - to achieve two Michelin stars you have to be perfect, and to get three you have to achieve a level of perfection that is almost preposterous. But I've not been impressed with some of the recent ventures he has lent his name to. I thought the Boxwood Cafe was extremely average and although I liked his gastropub, The Narrow, it was derivative and not that adventurous. La Noisette was appalling."
Eyebrows have also been raised about Ramsay's ubiquity in advertising campaigns. "I think that Gordon Ramsay is a fantastic chef who has very high standards in the kitchen. Unfortunately the same high standards don't always seem to apply to his choice of Ramsay-endorsed products and companies," wine writer Tim Atkin said.
"Think Walker's Crisps. Think Asda. Think BT. On the drink side, I don't know what he is doing promoting Gordon's, a mediocre, mass market gin, and I don't think he should have appeared in the window of Threshers off-licences puffing their wines. He gives the impression of being prepared to do almost anything for money."
Mr Borkowski said Ramsay was in danger of doing "what we in the trade call 'a Linda Barker' - she started off being quite an interesting style expert, but then very quickly after appearing on Changing Rooms seemed to be in everyone's face all of the time, sitting on sofas and making a fortune but getting on everyone's nerves." However, Will Smith, co-owner of the Michelin-starred Arbutus and Wild Honey restaurants in London, said that the sneers may be fuelled by envy.
"I am sure there are many people jealous of Gordon Ramsay's success. When you have been at the top for so long you are always open to criticism. With multiple outlets you are always going to be exposed to doomsayers. Is it realistic to expect his flagship restaurant to always be voted number one?" he said.
It was in New York that Ramsay had his first real taste of failure, when his much-hyped eponymous restaurant at the London hotel was given a lukewarm reception by US critics. Frank Bruni from the New York Times said the venture lacked excitement and relied on "familiar French ideas and techniques that have been executed with more flair, more consistency and better judgment in restaurants with less vaunted pedigrees".
Legendary prowess
Even his legendary prowess was called into question earlier this year, when it emerged he hadn't actually caught the sea bass he was shown apparently spearing on his Channel 4 show The F-Word. After the fisherman who actually made the catch blew the whistle, the broadcaster was forced to admit that the item, in which Ramsay said he felt "like a fucking action man", before he appeared to catch and cook the food, had "let down" viewers.
Of course, the work isn't exactly drying up for Ramsay. There's the rumoured Paris opening, plus another in Ireland, and he has two new books out next month alone. Not to mention a cameo on The Simpsons, in which he teaches Homer Simpson how to cook.
Talking about the show, at least, it seemed to be business as usual: "I hope they keep the swearing in," he said.
Kitchen empire Ramsay's restaurant recipe
· Given the frequency of his four-letter outbursts, it seems appropriate that Gordon Ramsay began his professional life as a goalkeeper for Rangers. Born in Scotland, he was raised in England but moved back to play for the club until an injury led to an HND in hotel management.
· Ramsay spent his kitchen apprenticeship at the apron strings of illustrious - and Michelin-starred - chefs, including three years with Guy Savoy and Joël Robuchon in Paris. His first headline role came with Aubergine, owned by Marco Pierre White. Awards and book deals rolled in, though he left Aubergine after a bitter falling out that still rumbles on.
· In 1998 Ramsay opened the first outpost of his own empire - the eponymous Gordon Ramsay. His next restaurant, Petrus, took a whole seven months to win a Michelin star. Since then the empire has expanded by the year, including the Connaught hotel (now closing).
· 2004 saw the beginning of his TV career, with Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares striking fear into the hearts of small business owners everywhere. Other series followed, and even his wife had a column in Grazia.
Global ambitions were perhaps inevitable, but even the thick-skinned Ramsay must have been shocked at the mauling his new American outpost received. But with rumoured expansions into Prague, Amsterdam and Paris, he's unlikely to brood.
Posted by Mark Borkowski on September 20
PUKKA PIES
An email sent this morning from a Bristol City fan in the Czech Republic put my scam radar on high alert. A pal pointed out an interesting post on the BBC 606 forum - a rather transparent attempt by a marketing or PR company to start a bit of a pie revolution in the lower leagues. I suggest that it's a pseudo row to create a foundation for a bigger campaign for Pukka Pies. The food company has a history of punching over its weight when drawing attention to itself. There is a part of me that hopes that this plea for quality pies is a not genetically modified one. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A26967586
The pies at Ashton Gate!Championship Bristol City
by williamstanleystone4 16 September 2007
This is a serious article to all the true Bristol City fans out there! you have to stop buying the pies at Ashton Gate as it has been confirmed that they are in actual fact not 'Pukka pies'! come on lads don't compromise! don't accept anything less than a 'pukka pie'! Other pies aren't good for our health as football fans. We have to inform the chairman Steve Lansdown about this catastrophe. It is unacceptable. Please for your own dignity avoid these pies. You will be a disgrace to the nation if you eat any other pie. We have to get this message around Ashton Gate so that nobody buys these compromising pies and then hopefully the caterers at the gate will find out about this compromising situation and replace these wretched excuses for pies with the real thing; 'Pukka Pies' 'Don't Compromise'.
Do this for your dignity! protest about the pies and we'll get Pukka Pies! Come on lads! lets do this for Bristol City Football Club!
Posted by Mark Borkowski on September 17
HAS BRITNEY KILLED OFF HER CAREER?
By now, you will know that Britney Spears’ much-vaunted comeback appearance at the MTV Video Music Awards was nothing short of a shambles. The singer, out-of-shape and seemingly dazed by the bright lights, stumbled through a lip-synced performance of her forthcoming single, Gimme More, in front of a perplexed showbusiness audience.
PR expert Mark Borkowski argues that it is the TV network, not the singer, which has come off worst from the debacle.
“You can’t use the media as Britney has and not expect to be crucified if you’re not up to scratch,” he says.
“But what the hell was MTV doing providing the crucifix?
“Credible brands need to be trusted, and that is exploitative PR.
“They will struggle in future to attract that sort of star, which is what their audience wants.”
IN THE first days after Madeleine McCann vanished, well-wishers from across the country descended on Rothley carrying cuddly toys, written prayers and yellow ribbons to express their sympathy for the McCanns.
But visible signs of support have ebbed away in the family’s home village. A single candle flickered below a yellow bouquet where there had previously been a makeshift shrine. Only a few messages were left behind.
“Everyone has an opinion on the case, and now it has become acceptable to voice criticism of the McCanns,” said Mark Borkowski, a media commentator. “The parents are now facing a middle-class trial by dinner party. The clear indication I am getting from newspaper executives is that coverage will shift towards the centre ground - not necessarily going after the McCanns, but certainly keep a distance that hasn’t been maintained up until now. There has been a clear flow of public opinion away from the McCanns.”
He added that interest in the case had been “phenomenal”, driven by the McCanns’ early appeal for coverage in helping to raise awareness of missing Madeleine. “The problem is that the media ‘owns’ the case - that is, that because the media have been with the family every step of the way, giving coverage to all the press conferences and keeping the picture of Madeleine in the public eye, they have the right to withdraw support when they see fit.
“To a certain extent this is also true of the general public. If this was about someone from a council estate then no-one, least of all the media, would be interested but it is about a middle-class couple and their photogenic daughter. Everyone has an opinion and everyone feels the right to say their piece because so much of the case has been conducted in the public domain.”
He added: “It doesn’t help that most people have seen television programmes such as CSI and Cracker and have become armchair forensic experts.”
I have been approached by a UK plastic surgeon who wants to discuss publicizing his new treatment. The phone call was a bit of a long ramble but essentially he wants to be the first British practitioner to surgically alter thumbs to make using an iPhone easier. I hope he is not a prankster reacting to this post.
Still the innuendo flows that our Wispa campaign was a hyped fake. The cynical business pages of the Sunday Telegraph did its own evaluation. Read the results
Britney Spears was the star of the MTV Video Music Awards last night in what the channel hyped as the fallen pop princess’ long-awaited comeback. Comeback - personally, I am still waiting for her to go away.
It’s sad to think that the mighty MTV needed the high profile showbiz casualty to generate the global media interest in its once illustrious and uber trendy awards. The channel seems to be showing signs of desperation. Is it losing traction with the big trendy brands who no longer think it’s essential to make MTV the destination for their huge media spend?
Posted by Mark Borkowski on September 10
CABBAGE CRATES COMING OVER THE BRINY
The RAF is missing a fantastic PR opp. The Russian military are proving to be much cleverer on the PR front that the dusty Air Staff.
Yesterday British fighter jets were scrambled to intercept eight Russian “Bear” reconnaissance aircraft in the second such incident in recent weeks. Four Tornado F3 planes took off from various bases around the UK to head off the bombers.
In a Pythonesque response, the MOD issued some limp pictures and let the media down. Where was the Top Gun action? We want to see some real heroes going into action. Where were the images and footage of the planes scrambling? Neither sound nor live action on news programmes of cockpit chatter as our boys swooped in.
This is the 21st century. The boys own stuff should be communicated for the YouTube generation.
If this is a new “cold PR war”, wheel out the firepower. A message to Whitehall - “Come on Wingco, buck up! Bunch of monkeys on your ceiling! Grab your egg-and-fours and get the bacon delivered!”
Posted by Mark Borkowski on September 7
THE LAUGHING LOTUS LOUTS
“The laughing Lotus Louts; Pair vandalise sports car and then put film on MySpace!” screams the headline in the Evening Standard.
The story is about two hooligans - or as one blogger colourfully describes them - “retarded knob jockeys”, who filmed themselves wrecking a £30,000 Lotus Elise parked in a London street then posting the film on MySpace last month.
Allegedly, the clip has instigated a nationwide hunt for the perpetrators as well as a huge amount of brand chatter.
I am suspicious. It feels like a clever viral stunt created by the car company The story has generated coverage about the brand across traditional media and the blogosphere. Arguably, it is a gainful promo, making loads of noise and cheaply executed to great effect.
The most expensive part would have been to replace the soft-top Lotus Elise roof. If the crime were real, surely the owner would have put a call into the local fuzz.
The Met police said they had not received any reports of damage to a Lotus and could find no record of the alleged vandals’ names. If someone trashed my motor, I would have called the plod.
Posted by Mark Borkowski on September 7
VEET PAIN IN THE PR NECK
Ben Goldacre of the Guardian neatly summarises why irrelevant surveys - a tool used by countless lazy PR companies are a useless device. Read on…
I wish we could cut out the virulent cancer of incompetent PR execs.
Posted by Mark Borkowski on September 5
INVENTIVE INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
The chaos caused by the tube strike should have inspired a creative opportunity for industrial relations innovation, as well as a PR coup.
Once again, lurid headlines condemning the union leaders who had organised the strike did little to communicate the issues and the heart of the dispute. In general, the Great British unwashed have a negative attitude towards the concept of strikes. If the unions want to win the PR war and get their broader issues addressed, they will need to make us – the commuters – put away personal agendas. If the punters are subjected to hardships, they tend to disappear into their proverbial “me” shells. For the commuter, it becomes a personal issue being unable to go about their own daily business, it is not about comprehending the concepts of rights and freedom, which people have fought for, for many years, and for which they are not prepared to lose.
The RMT general secretary Bob Crow could have averted the public relations disasters that have dogged the union for decades. I despaired at the flurry of soundbites that flooded out of the union HQ as Bob insisted that his union members were willing to compromise as thousands of people endured miserable journeys to their work place. Instead of striking, might it not have been radical for all union members to allow users of the tube network to travel free? Punters would have welcomed the gesture and I am sure the bosses would have been shocked into reaching a quick and meaningful compromise.
I can hear the call echoing across the land… “together for employment, purchasing power, workers’ rights”.
Posted by Mark Borkowski on September 5
BITE IT AND BELIEVE THE HYPE
Trevor Beattie the god of creativity in ad land has recognized our work on Wispa in this mornings Independent.
"Shout it from the rooftops. Wispa is back. And the campaign behind its return has been a joy to behold. The oldest, subtlest and most effective form of advertising known to mankind is word of mouth. The Bring Back Wispa campaign has harnessed this most ancient of techniques, dipped it in liquid nostalgia and married it with every new trick in the (Face)book: public relations, blogging, online petitions, social networking and even a pair of mud-caked herberts draped in a Wispa flag out-dancing Iggy Pop on stage at Glastonbury. This genuinely is the first brand to be relaunched as a result of web2.0 pressure. The door has been kicked in. Bite it and believe the hype."
Last night, Brian Belo was voted this year's winner. The 20-year-old data clerk, who claimed he had no idea who Shakespeare was, pipped the favourites, twins Sam and Amanda Marchant, 19, to claim the £100,000 winner's cheque.
FRom the Scotsman
Mark Borkowski, a PR adviser, said the show had proven effective in capturing the target youth market, but questioned the career potential for the housemates. "We are seeing five-minute wonders - the Big Brother evictees," he said.
"They float around and they will end up on some backwater satellite channel, they will do the odd personal appearance in a club and they will probably fall over drunk for the cameras."
Big Brother winner revealed but show is the loser
FERGUS SHEPPARD
MEDIA CORRESPONDENT
THE latest series of Big Brother has drawn the lowest viewing figures in its seven-year history.
An average of 3.8 million viewers have tuned in to this year's series of the Channel 4 reality show. That is sharply down on the 4.5 million who watched during 2006.
Last night, Brian Belo was voted this year's winner. The 20-year-old data clerk, who claimed he had no idea who Shakespeare was, pipped the favourites, twins Sam and Amanda Marchant, 19, to claim the £100,000 winner's cheque.
Max Clifford, the PR expert, yesterday said he believed the Big Brother format had peaked. "It's been very successful as a gimmick, but now people are looking at it from a value point of view and of course there is no value to it. Big Brother is just exhibitionists being outrageous because of their own egos and desire to be famous."
Mark Borkowski, a PR adviser, said the show had proven effective in capturing the target youth market, but questioned the career potential for the housemates. "We are seeing five-minute wonders - the Big Brother evictees," he said.
"They float around and they will end up on some backwater satellite channel, they will do the odd personal appearance in a club and they will probably fall over drunk for the cameras."
C4 used the Edinburgh TV festival to announce that it is dropping next year's run of Celebrity Big Brother. The show was plunged into controversy earlier this year after the Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty was the victim of racist bullying by other housemates.
