January 2007

IS ALL CELEBRITY BIG BROTHER PUBLICITY BAD PUBLICITY?

Channel 4 is on a roller coaster ride. Every hour this week a new scenario shifts the media agenda and the current interest in Big Brother is at an all time high. The media and the public has been fixated - and transfixed - by the bullying and supposed racism in the house. And whether it is going to derail Jade Goody Inc. Is this all just publicity fall out or manna from heaven? We will soon discover if all publicity is bad publicity?

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/organgrinder/2007/01/is_all_celebrity_big_brother_p.html

Front page news, radio phone ins, bloggers and the Houses of Parliament are all debating whether Shilpa Shetty is a victim of racial bullying. Unfortunately for those who live in the media village, we have to consider the demographic that we don't connect to. From my own recent experience, with the surname I'm proud to own, it's not uncommon for me to be thrown by the odd unsettling remark. We hope and pray that the society we live in is not represented by the coven in the Big Brother house - a wannabe starlet making a career from being a WAG, a nice girl next door who got a break in a conceptual band, whose career has now gone to minus zero, and a loud mouthed former reality contestant, washed up from the estuary of celebrity.

At the beginning Channel 4 played a masterful PR hand by giving a limited response to the furore. The bosses at Channel 4 and the heads of the production company, Endemol, didn't put their heads over the parapet. This non-engagement resulted in even more debate and column inches. They were clearly in a position where they can see the flames being fanned, but were planning to choose their moment when they either add petrol to the fire, or extinguish it. The real loser in all this could have been The Carphone Warehouse, but then they pulled their sponsorship of the show and got more column inches than a full series of advertising would have attracted.

With the touch of a spinmeister Channel 4 chief executive Andy Duncan at the Oxford conference suggested in a, monotone delivery, that the programme is facilitating the debate on racism and bullying. Duncan suggested that the issues drawn out by BB enable a contemporary dialogue on a topic in society that rarely has such a public platform. Clever to tilt the rudder so deftly, clearly this statement was driven by the loss of Carphone Warehouse.

The ploy to put Shilpa into the house was a master stroke as it's engaging not only a British / Asian audience and the fans of Bollywood, but it gave the show a lift back to the levels it reached last year when George Galloway was in da house. I'm sure the mischievous souls at Channel 4 who manipulate the programme had seriously thought about putting a Muslim in the house. The public vote to see Jade or Shilpa evicted is now being spun as a referendum on racist attitudes in this country.

We must never forget the PR backlash that has resulted in the likes of the BNP finding a niche power in sensitive urban constituencies. The media establishment which includes Endemol and Channel 4 would do well to recognise that they are already playing with petrol next to a naked flame. The diatribe that this has ignited, could explode. Let us remember that 24 hours in the time compressed media universe is a lifetime. Flashpoints based around race can sometimes become an uncontrollable force of nature.

However, none of the central players is actually interested in stopping this whirlwind. If the voters wanted to take some direct action, they could not vote at all or simply turn their televisions off. That would really shake the fabric of Endemol and Channel 4.

IS ALL CELEBRITY BIG BROTHER PUBLICITY BAD PUBLICITY?

Channel 4 is on a roller coaster ride. Every hour this week a new scenario shifts the media agenda and the current interest in Big Brother is at an all time high. The media and the public has been fixated - and transfixed - by the bullying and supposed racism in the house. And whether it is going to derail Jade Goody Inc. Is this all just publicity fall out or manna from heaven? We will soon discover if all publicity is bad publicity?

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/organgrinder/2007/01/is_all_celebrity_big_brother_p.html

Front page news, radio phone ins, bloggers and the Houses of Parliament are all debating whether Shilpa Shetty is a victim of racial bullying. Unfortunately for those who live in the media village, we have to consider the demographic that we don't connect to. From my own recent experience, with the surname I'm proud to own, it's not uncommon for me to be thrown by the odd unsettling remark. We hope and pray that the society we live in is not represented by the coven in the Big Brother house - a wannabe starlet making a career from being a WAG, a nice girl next door who got a break in a conceptual band, whose career has now gone to minus zero, and a loud mouthed former reality contestant, washed up from the estuary of celebrity.

At the beginning Channel 4 played a masterful PR hand by giving a limited response to the furore. The bosses at Channel 4 and the heads of the production company, Endemol, didn't put their heads over the parapet. This non-engagement resulted in even more debate and column inches. They were clearly in a position where they can see the flames being fanned, but were planning to choose their moment when they either add petrol to the fire, or extinguish it. The real loser in all this could have been The Carphone Warehouse, but then they pulled their sponsorship of the show and got more column inches than a full series of advertising would have attracted.

With the touch of a spinmeister Channel 4 chief executive Andy Duncan at the Oxford conference suggested in a, monotone delivery, that the programme is facilitating the debate on racism and bullying. Duncan suggested that the issues drawn out by BB enable a contemporary dialogue on a topic in society that rarely has such a public platform. Clever to tilt the rudder so deftly, clearly this statement was driven by the loss of Carphone Warehouse.

The ploy to put Shilpa into the house was a master stroke as it's engaging not only a British / Asian audience and the fans of Bollywood, but it gave the show a lift back to the levels it reached last year when George Galloway was in da house. I'm sure the mischievous souls at Channel 4 who manipulate the programme had seriously thought about putting a Muslim in the house. The public vote to see Jade or Shilpa evicted is now being spun as a referendum on racist attitudes in this country.

We must never forget the PR backlash that has resulted in the likes of the BNP finding a niche power in sensitive urban constituencies. The media establishment which includes Endemol and Channel 4 would do well to recognise that they are already playing with petrol next to a naked flame. The diatribe that this has ignited, could explode. Let us remember that 24 hours in the time compressed media universe is a lifetime. Flashpoints based around race can sometimes become an uncontrollable force of nature.

However, none of the central players is actually interested in stopping this whirlwind. If the voters wanted to take some direct action, they could not vote at all or simply turn their televisions off. That would really shake the fabric of Endemol and Channel 4.

VEGAS & MONKEY: A WELCOME REVIVAL.

Vegas & monkey: a welcome revival.

Two paths that come together on one journey shape a new dimension of meaning and possibility, a co-creation of power and passion.

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/organgrinder/2007/01/johnny_vegas_monkey_a_welcome.html#more

This isn't a half baked, hippy eastern mantra, but a communication paradigm. When an advertising idea shapes up into brilliant opportunism, we all turn and chuckle and wish we had had the same idea. Thus the comedy duo, Johnny Vegas and his sidekick Monkey, return to our screens as the new faces of PG Tips.

The pair was created for the adverts for the now defunct ITV Digital. Those who can remember must agree that the ad campaign was far better than the ITV proposition itself.

The media is obsessed with comebacks and gawd knows we have had a few - not least my own client, Noel Edmonds. So twisting the arm of PG Tips to see sense and rebirth the Vegas-Monkey double act is genius, and the media space it has generated has been as prolific. More interesting than Britney Spears without any knickers on a blind date with Justin Timberlake.

PG Tips has been struggling since the PC brigade killed off the performing chimps that first graced our screens in 1956, coinciding with lions leaping through hoops during the Chipperfield's Christmas Circus TV special. Commercials featuring PG Tips chimps were finally dropped in 2002 as part of a bid to make the brand more "contemporary".

The woolly puppet will become not only a mascot for the brand but also boost the toy business. When ITV Digital croaked, a custody battle over Monkey ensued between administrators Deloitte & Touche and Mother, the ad agency that created him.

But that didn't hinder Monkey's return. A truly great idea never dies, and will always generate publicity. Not all ideas take off or last, and advertising companies are all too often reminding clients of this.

It's common knowledge that PG Tips has high hopes for this campaign, and needs it to succeed. The Monkey proves that a great piece of content will always stand the test of time.