April 2008

ANTI SMOKING AD TOPS COMPLAINTS

Out of the 14.080 adverts which drew complaints last year, the official government anti smoking campaign, showing a woman with a fish hook through her cheek, provoked the most anger. Over the last few years there has been a growth in the amount of complaints that the Advertising Standards Authority has received, particularly for commercials which aim to deliver shock, horror and revulsion. In the good old days, all this outrage would have been articulated by the late great Mary Whitehouse. I have been talking about the reasons for this growth for some time now. In order for brands to get traction in every day life and the amount of money that’s demanded from them from advertising agencies, they need to do more than just sit on the terrestrial channels, they need to get into the mainstream. They need to bring these ads alive and right now, shock, outrage and horror are the only tricks left for advertising agencies to get ads into the mainstream and to charge the kind of money they charge to make them.

The government anti smoking ad has now been read about by probably more people than actually saw the ad in the first place. The real problem will come when people start saying “oh no, not another ad that’s going to get complaints”… but until then, we need a 21st Century funky Mary Whitehouse who can bring all these heinous and outrageous matters to our attention!

ANOTHER PATHETIC MTV PR STUNT

Why oh why is MTV associating itself with zzzzz list celebrities once again. Stand by for another desperate attempt by MTV to try and sell its pitiful content. It’s as subtle as getting a tan with a blow torch. The latest scam is a mildly amusing viral campaign for the skanky UK Big Brother series 8, Chanelle Hayes. Remember, Chanelle once declared that she would rather have the money in the bank than a personality. Well thanks to the cuddly boys at MTV , suddenly she is slapping her ass in bed with a glove puppet and we are supposed to think that this tape is an ironic play on the illegal sex tape medium. Chanelle is desperately trying to be a pop star but she is just like fertilizer: stinks for a while, then you get used to it. I am bored with all the hapless ex Big Brother types. Why does anyone bother with them, especially MTV? They have had their moment, so move on. . It’s so sad that the once great MTV associates itself with dumb reality show jet trash. This whole exercise has the grace and elegance of a pregnant cow. But if you like seeing Chanelle rolling around in a bed pulling off her lingerie, by my guest and play this sad viral that is a disguised PR stunt. Personally, I would rather pick maggots out of road kill, fry them in hot grease and then eat them.

MISS LANDMINE

Shock tactics and lateral thinking make the “Miss Landmine” contest, dismissed by some as a “freak show”, the most interesting way to make the world aware of landmines again, since the death of Diana. The contest, created by a Norwegian film director, Morten Traavik, was inspired by the plight of landmine victims in Angola.

There are more than 80,000 amputees in Angola and out of 1.4 million landmines planted in Cambodia, there are still 1 million that remain buried. Morten secured funding from the EU, Norway’s Arts Council and the Angolan Government’s de-mining commission and now there are plans to have a Miss Landmine in Cambodia next year. Many agencies who support victims of landmines or challenge awareness of the issue have failed to have a voice in the past ten years. This stunt has possibly put it back on the agenda.

MONKEY BUSINESS

I loved the Orangutan protest covered in today’s Daily Mail. Environmentalists dressed in Orangutan costumes and besieged the London headquarters of Unilver, the giant household products conglomerate.

At the same time, its offices in Rotterdam and Rome and a factory in Merseyside were targeted. According to a Greenpeace report, Burning Up Borneo is accusing Unilever of destroying the Indonesian rainforests, a natural habitat for Orangutans, to get palm oil which is used in soaps and lotions. Unilever admitted using palm oil but only in some of their products.

This simple publicity stunt involving humans dressing up in monkey costumes has certainly undone all the great publicity that Unilever generated for Dove. The “real women” campaign for Dove was an amazing idea to use real women rather than models to promote Dove products and one which created traction for the brand. But if you haven’t got a robust sustainability programme in place, the Greenpeace stunt has the ability to make your shares drop 3p.

PRESCOTT'S OUT

I am now thinking that Prescott's outing of his eating disorder has projected the issue into the heart of the media churn. It has generated so much attention on the debate that it's submerged the book release. Well done JP, your honesty has allowed so many to face up to this modern illness. It seems that your struggles have given hope to millions.

JOHN PRESCOTT AUTOBIOGRAPHY: PUBLICITY STUNT OR HONEST REVELATION?

So- John Prescott has a book on his life coming out. Yes, another politician cashing in on his public office to help fund a comfortable retirement. It is tough selling books - have you ever wondered when you have been in a WH Smith, Tesco's or Waterstones, how the hell do they shift all the books on the shelves. The people that pay vast sums for the rights to someone's life come up with a predictable set of tricks to get them in the public eye.

Make no mistake from Jordan to JK Rowling if they get it right they make sheds loads of cash. However, it is not easy - the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization keep a check on the number and sort of books published per country per year. It believes that it is indication on the standard of living and education, and of a country's self-awareness. Figures suggest that Great Britain is leading the world with new titles per year. Over 206,000 books are published annually that is more than America, which comes second with 172,000 titles per year. So how is John Prescott the famous trade union activist, former Deputy Prime Minister going to cash in on his colourful life? The big man has always been a larger than life character in the public eye.

Numerous incidents have caused public concern and widespread media interest. Therefore, you would expect the book to be of interest after all his life has been nearly as interesting as an episode of Home and Away. Remember when a farmer threw an egg at him during the 2001 general election, Prescott responded with a punch. Well forget all that surprisingly we are going to learn that he has more in common with Lindsay Lohan, Mary-Kate Olsen, Chantelle Houghton, Billie Piper, Victoria Beckham, Princess Diana, Sharon Osbourne and Geri Halliwell.

Believe or not the big man has decided on a crude way to get book promotion off the ground - he has joined all the other showbiz names and outed an eating disorder. I am cringing at the thought - what a crazy way to sell your book. It is the lazy tool that everybody uses and Prescott eating disorder will become the sound bite of the year that might overshadow the more serious content. I have a book coming out in the summer that highlights all the tricks publicity folk have used down the years to create fame. John might have picked up some tips if he had read it first. Come on Mr Prescott you’re hardly Billie Piper eating tissues in an 11-year battle with anorexia and bulimia.

Book PR people engineer stories for maximum attention it is the easiest, fastest, and cheapest way to obtain popularity. Hence, it becomes main objective to catch the media attention to help to propel a book to the top. I cannot believe that the old trick of outing an eating disorder will work for John Prescott. Edwina Curry was the best political figure to out a story as a stunt to sell a book remember her book "Currie's Diaries" caused a sensation, when she revealed a four-year affair with John Major.

One day he will look back on this weekend, regret that this will overpower the more serious subject matter. It might not have been a good idea to not stoop to the level of some authors, who use predictable topics, to get the book to the top of the bestseller list. I suppose there will be another stunt for the publication of the paperback version- expect an weight loss diet to accompany its re launch – now that is scary

SILVIO BERLUSCONI THE PR DISASTERS RETURNS

The most gaffe-prone European leader of modern times - 71 year old media billionaire Silvio Berlusconi starts his third term as Italy’s prime minister today. Despite Italy facing deep economic and social problems, being a country close to recession, with consumer buying power falling and unemployment rising, the man is back to pilot the ship of state. Somehow Berlusconi has survived a series of blunders and PR disasters.

In his prime, Berlusconi thought nothing of insulting fellow politicians, world leaders and whole countries. He was even forced to make a groveling public apology to his wife, Veronica, after she wrote to a newspaper saying she had been offended at his flirting with several attractive women at a TV awards ceremony.

Remember in 2002, when he was pictured at a European summit making horn gestures with his fingers behind the head of the Spanish foreign minister. The next year he insulted German MEP Martin Schulz, comparing him to a concentration camp guard. Even though Mr Berlusconi insisted he was only joking, it caused a brief diplomatic rift between Italy and Germany.

In 2005, when he was opening the European Food Safety Authority in Parma he claimed he had used “playboy tactics” on Finland’s female president to get her vote to locate the body in Italy. He also insulted Finland by saying the only thing they had in their cuisine was herring.

Sexism has been a regular theme. The man who has had several facelifts, once suggested businesses should move to Italy as the secretaries were far prettier than anywhere else in the world. Then, in the current election campaign, he said “centre-right female politicians were far prettier than the centre-left ones”. He has also managed to offend the world’s largest nation by saying: “Chinese communists ate babies and it was a well-known fact.”

Perhaps his image carried him back to power. Berlusconi, rarely appears in public without make-up, is known as a perfectionist and stickler for visual detail. He urged his party chief in Sicily to follow his example and have a hair transplant in a novel attempt to prevent defeat at the next election.

With the image junky Sarkozy in the seat of power in France, is it really the age of PR style of meaningful substance - let’s face it, these statesman don’t really fit the historic image of great and worthy political giants and diplomats. I don’t feel that they are rational, authoritative, adventurous and certainly not inspirational.

It’s disturbing to think that these clowns are now in charge of the 3 ring circus. Maybe, if pretty boy Paddick was to use his GQesque charms, maybe he could turn the tables in the up and coming London mayoral cat fight. Lets face it, both Ken and Boris have been beaten by the ugly stick.

SHOCK SONY PICTURES INVEST IN PROM NIGHT PUBLICITY STUNT ..

At long last, a Hollywood Studio buying into a publicity stunt. According to reports, a fear-inducing publicity stunt in US movie theatres helped usher in success for the new film “Prom Night,” as the movie won the box office battle for the weekend ending April 13, according to USA Today and other film sources. The slasher flick had a B-list cast and a set of really crap reviews, but nonetheless vaulted to an estimated $22.7 million in its opening weekend. I love to see stunts embraced in an ever cautious, penny pinching environment but clearly the US audience loved the effort. The distributor set-up cardboard stand-up ads in 120 theaters advertising the film.

The standees, which looked like creepy mansions, invited moviegoers to step inside “for a night to die for.” When they opened the doors they were greeted by a screaming, flailing usher from the theatre’s staff. Teens took videos of the reactions, which quickly became a hit on YouTube. It worked great, but I fear the movie’s success is perhaps more to do with the American audience’s addiction to violence than the PR stunt.

PLANES, TRAINS AND... LOST LUGGAGE

What an awful ordeal Rob Napier must be going through, having left his 17th Century violin worth nearly $400.000 on a Great Western Train. Left on the luggage rack, the prized instrument made by the master Venetian craftsmen Matteo Goffriller, has not been seen since it went missing in January, despite Napier calling the train company the second the train pulled out of the station. By the time the train got to its destination, the violin had gone…. And don’t I know what that feels like.

I too travel on Great Western Trains and have suffered the loss of many items, admittedly not a 17th Century violin, but still items which were dear to me and never retrieved. They are a PR nightmare, faceless examples of modern corporate PR that spend their time distancing themselves from issues. Interestingly, a fellow Great Western user, Dom Jolly, was ranting in the Independent about the very issue of lost luggage but on airlines. There are apparently auctioneers in London who hold auctions specifically for lost luggage. All attempts are supposed to be made to identify the owner of any lost cases. Dom Jolly bought a job lot of fifteen bags and found the identities of the owners immediately – he returned the items to the owners doing the job that the airlines are supposed to do. Not only this, the proceeds of these auctions are supposed to go to charity but not one of the airlines that Jolly asked could say which charity they donated the money to. However if you’re a famous super model by the name of Kate Moss, mislaid baggage needn’t be quite as disturbing as it is to most. Kate’s ten bags were mislaid when she took a first class flight from the infamous Terminal Five going to LA. Two days after her arrival in LA the bags were found and delivered to her, but she is already in negotiations with British Airways for compensation. According to the Montreal convention passenger rights, Moss is entitled to compensation of up to £850 per lost case and she has been put on a fast track for a payout. BA acted quickly and did everything they could to find Moss’s luggage because her PR collateral is so high. If you’re a celebrity, you can promote more traffic to a negative issue and this influences how an airline or train company will act. Humble travellers have to grin and bear the reality that we are just a number with no power to overwhelm the corporate PR flaks who earn a fat fee for keeping their pitiful clients out the headlines with frustrating systems that confound and confuse. The stress levels these flaks must have are driven by the paranoia that it’s a matter of time before they face a T5 fiasco. So Rob Napier and his lost violin don’t really stand a chance; Great Western Trains are notorious for not giving a shit and he’s just a normal guy with no PR clout.

MAX MOSELEY PR MELTDOWN

Experts: Mosley must go quiet over orgy claims
LONDON, England (CNN) — Motor sport boss Max Mosley needs a period of “dignified silence” before finding friends willing to help rebuild his image after claims about his role in a sado-masochistic orgy with five prostitutes, according to media experts.
By Glen Scanlon For CNN

Mark Borkowski, a media commentator and publicist, said Mosley could survive the revelations. However, “honesty must overwhelm hubris.”

“You’ve got to get above it… fighting a losing battle will compound distress — while posturing legal threats are meaningless without determination and will.”

Borkowski said the key to rebuilding was to let the story die down before going on the offensive.

“He needs to collect a series of messages to be digested by the media to underline his position and treatment by the News of the World.”

He said Mosley, who has engaged the firm of former News of the World editor Phil Hall to handle his PR, had to listen to the advice he was now getting.

“You’ve got to start addressing the basis of it [the allegations].”

Borkowski said Formula One was dominated by arrogance, and at Mosley’s level he could not trust anyone.

However, there was “always a way back for people.”
“This is a time when you learn who your friends are… it is essential to get the people nearest to you to comprehend the real issues,” Borkowski said.

“People who trust and respect you help communicate the positives to rebuild a broken image while aggressive posturing will only provide a platform for the opposition.”

He said Mosley had to ensure his arguments were carefully constructed.

“Even if Max feels there are anomalies within their story — and he has strenuously denied there was any Nazi element to the sex scandal — the legal process is an expensive, long battle.

“And if the paper loses a legal fight, the apologies are never the same size as the original story.”

Borkowski said stories came and went, and personalities had to hope a bigger story took them off the media agenda. The Diana inquest verdict, for example, had provided relief this week.

THE JOURNEY OF HARMONY

Thanks for Pete Fraser for sending me this link to the History News Network . An article on this rather good site highlights the origin of the Olympic torch relay. Not good news that it was engineered for the Nazi Games in
Berlin. Its apposite that the BCOG have taken a leaf from Nazis lexicography and have called the torch procession “The Journey of Harmony” and our using it for their own brand of cuddly propaganda.
Read on

“In fact, this ceremony never occurred at the ancient Olympics. The modern conception is a mishmash of two quite different pagan traditions that

Berlin’s masterminds—in particular, Dr. Carl Diem, a leading German scholar who became head of the organizing committee—had brilliantly reworked.

Olympia, like all ancient Greek and Roman sanctuaries, did have its own eternal flame, which was kept burning for Hestia, goddess of the hearth, in a building called the Prytaneion, or “Magistrate’s House.” It was used to light all the sacrificial fires at altars throughout the sanctuary. The “revived” 1936 torch race perfectly fit the Nazi design for the Olympics as a showcase for the New Germany. With its aura of ancient mysticism, the rite linked Nazism to the civilized glories of classical Greece, which the Reich’s academics were arguing had been an Aryan wonderland. (They were particularly fond of the macho, warlike Spartans—Hitler was even inexplicably convinced that the peasant soup of Schleswig-Holstein was a descendant of Spartan black broth, a famously austere staple fed to the men in communal messes as they underwent their brutal training.) Hitler took considerable personal interest in the ritual, and pumped funds into its promotion: The Nazi propaganda machine covered the torch relay slavishly, broadcasting radio reports from every step of the route, and filled the Games with the iconography of ancient Greek athletics. Afterward, the ceremony became permanently embedded in the popular imagination, in part due to Leni Riefenstahl’s documentary of the Nazi Games, Olympia, which evocatively showed a Greek runner treading the gentle beaches of the
Aegean at dusk.

BIG DEBATE CAN MAX MOSLEY SURVIVE AT THE HELM OF THE FIA?

Wednesday April 9, 2008
guardian.co.uk

Yes
Mark Borkowski, Media commentator and publicist

Can a personality survive the sort of scandal enveloping the beleaguered FIA president, Max Mosley? Of course, but it all depends on their attitude to how the media are reporting the story. It is an unenviable situation of deep personal pain. At least Max can afford good PR counsel but the million-dollar question is: can he trust the pilot to steer him through these stormy waters

Honesty must overwhelm hubris - fighting a losing battle will compound distress - while posturing legal threats are meaningless without determination and will. A strategy of moving forward is to embrace the power of media - particularly 24 /7 television - and find friends to articulate the invasion of privacy. The game was on before publication. Mosley needed an artful publicist to bargain then because once the story breaks there is little you can do. The rebuilding starts with clear internal communication. It is essential to get the people nearest to you to comprehend the real issues. People who trust and respect you help communicate the positives to rebuild a broken image while aggressive posturing will only provide a platform for the opposition . If you say: "I'm going to fight it in court," be aware you are providing a reason for newspapers to come and sting you again. If Mosley is going to threaten legal action, he cannot just snarl and show his teeth - he has to go for it and make sure the arguments are carefully constructed. But even if Max feels there are anomalies within their story - and he has strenuously denied there was any Nazi element to the sex scandal - the legal process is an expensive, long battle. And if the paper loses a legal fight, the apologies are never the same size as the original story.

Although things look black, stories come and go and personalities must pray a bigger story takes them off the media agenda. The soap opera surrounding the Shannon Matthews abduction and the Diana inquest verdict, for example, both provided relief this week.

The key to rebuilding is to let the story die down before going on the offensive. In the meantime, he needs to collect a series of messages to be digested by the media to underline his position and treatment by the News of the World. It is vital to hold your head up and be bigger than the slur . Look for a friendly paper and TV spot then use them to let the world understand your point of view. But he will need to develop a very thick skin because only 75% of people will ever believe his argument. If all else fails I hear that they are looking for guests for the next edition of I'm A Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here.

Mark Borkowski's 'The Fame Formula' will be published by Macmillan in August

No

Max Clifford, Celebrity publicist

It is extremely difficult to judge what will happen at this point but things are going to be very hard for Max Mosley. As someone who is involved in helping clients in these dramas, the key is knowing exactly what happened. Even if you lack just a fraction of the information it can make a huge amount of diff erence in the advice you can give. In this case, I don't know what the exact positions of the News of the World or Max Mosley are but if Max is saying there were no Nazi overtones then he has to fight, not just for his career but because his future depends on this or he will be forever known as his father's son. There is a huge amount at stake.

My instinct tells me that the News of the World must have felt very sure of themselves to run this story. Max Mosley is a rich, powerful man and when your witnesses are hookers or escort girls they do not stand up too well in court. You can only assume that the News of the World has evidence, whether in the form of videos or tape recordings, that substantiates what they are saying.

If they do - and, of course, it is an if - and they have Max Mosley bang to rights, the best thing he could do would be to apologise and get out. Containing a sex scandal is one thing but anti semitism is totally another when you consider the vast amount of sponsorship that is involved in motorsport. He could survive a sex scandal because motor racing is not a puritanical sport, but not all the other stuff which is far more damaging in terms of image and the perceptions of him as a man.

The only way for him to survive will be to prove conclusively to all of us, that this was nothing more than filth and frivolity. He will find it very hard to survive if he can't because the public perception of him will be that there was an anti-Jewish aspect and that he is a chip off the old block - regardless of whether that is true.

Max is in a very difficult position as well because he is not a sports star but an administrator. Do you think anyone really cares if Wayne Rooney is shagging someone old enough to be his grandmother if he is playing well for England or Manchester United? No, they don't. If Max Mosley was a great motor racing driver and a champion he would be in a much easier position. Similarly, Lewis Hamilton would have a far better chance of surviving because he could put it down to being young, drunk or didn't realise what was happening. But Max is older, meant to be wiser and he isn't a sports star so there is a whole different set of rules. There is very little public sympathy around for the old, rich men who control sport.

CHINA'S OLYMPIC NIGHTMARE

After a week in the depths of the French countryside without access to the internet, I returned yesterday to the utter madness of the Olympic torch relay procession through London.

How could this blatant PR stunt for the Chinese government have been allowed to take place? The front pages of most of today’s dailies show Chinese security heavies jogging alongside the police to protect the flame from protesters.

More power to the thousands who took to the streets to express their anger, I say, given that the Chinese have done little since winning the Olympics to address its human rights record.

Make no mistake, the relay was a propaganda ploy. There have been a number of low-key actions to try to persuade the world that the Olympic ethos is in safe hands. Let’s not forget how much money is being invested in PR by the Chinese to drive home this point.

One of the more costly investments was to appoint Hill & Knowlton as the official public relations agency for the Beijing Olympics 2008. I suggest that this able global agency will engage in dark arts to spin China, and deflect its appalling record on dealing with Aids, Tibet, and its shameful influence in Darfur.

Not long after the first signs of unrest were first reported in Tibet, an online survey was released globally. “The Project 2008 Poll, a joint initiative of the Ogilvy Group in China and Millward Brown ACSR, probed Chinese residents in locations along the Torch Relay route in China for their attitudes and opinions regarding the Games. Launched in early January, the study utilized Lightspeed Research, Millward Brown ACSR's online China panel, which collected 2,687 responses from citizens aged 12-54 “

I was not surprised to learn that the Chinese nation has greeted the Olympics with enthusiasm and excitement. The breathless release declared that there was a soaring pride in China for the games and the nation were excited for their athlete’s potential for Olympic Gold.

China, with the aid of it PR cronies, has tried to defuse pressure over its human rights record. Through remorseless lobbying diplomacy and skilful use of its growing economic clout, it has sidelined western complaints about human rights and marginalized the non-governmental lobbies that seek to promote them.
If yesterday was anything to go by, the next four months should be a PR nightmare for the Chinese.

The Olympics provide China's critics with a marvelous backdrop and focal point to highlight the woes of the regime. I hope activists can win the PR battle by baiting the Chinese authorities and using direct action over the coming months to try to bring this regime to heel and force them into providing the basic freedoms that we take for granted.

Shame on anyone who does not use their voice to shame the Chinese at this crucial time; if this does not succeed then, once the Games are over, we can expect to see repeated use of the heavy hand that Beijing uses to deal with dissent and protests.