MARK MY WORDS
Mark’s view
Whenever the news agenda hits hysteria point, Mark offers thoughtful analysis, a wry point of view and an insider’s insight
Latest ‘MARK MY WORDS’ Blog Posts
They telegraphed the breakfast briefing for days a pre-scripted play of excuses before the inevitable tax U-turn…
They telegraphed the breakfast briefing for days a pre-scripted play of excuses before the inevitable tax U-turn.So by the time Rachel Reeves stepped into the briefing in No.10, we already knew the plot. What followed was theatre without tension: a Middle England headmistress defending a poor Ofsted rating, fluent in risk management and managerial calm.A […]
Just finished Andrew Lownie ‘s Entitled…
Just finished Andrew Lownie ‘s Entitled a brilliant, visceral dissection of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Sarah Ferguson fittingly, on the very day of an unprecedented royal announcement. Andrew stripped of allhis titles and status.The timing couldn’t be juicier. Lownie’s forensic tour through ego, privilege, and decades of embarrassment for the royal brand reads like the missing […]
Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman quitting Strictly isn’t just TV fluff it’s a masterclass in the politics of timing…
Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman quitting Strictly isn’t just TV fluff it’s a masterclass in the politics of timing. Cynics will suspect a hidden narrative beneath the sequins, but taken at face value, this headline is a meditation on the art of departure.Most people in our business cling on long after the sparkle’s gone, clutching […]
In the grand theatre of public discourse, we’ve forgotten the weight of a single phrase…
In the grand theatre of public discourse, we’ve forgotten the weight of a single phrase. Words now drift about as lightly as candyfloss. Take Trump’s latest billing: standing next to Netanyahu and declaring his peace plan the greatest event in civilisation. Quite something, considering the pyramids, the printing press, antibiotics and the Beatles are apparently […]
Of course, I do not forget the lessons…
Of course, I do not forget the lessons etched in the tablets of great PR practice. After all, I’m now a vintage publicist. Few today might recall the great Tylenol meltdown, but as the brand once again faces an existential threat, it’s worth remembering what time forgot.Back in 1982, when America woke to the horror […]
The all-consuming binfire on LinkedIn this week…
The all-consuming binfire on LinkedIn this week lit by Zoe Scaman centres on Stagwell’s work to help the Israeli government launder its image, sorry win the Hammas war. Well, of course. There’s always someone willing to spray Chanel on a corpse if the cheque is big enough. The oldest alibi in the comms trade is […]
Let me say it aloud: We face a crisis of trust in politics…
Let me say it aloud: We face a crisis of trust in politics. It’s always the small betrayals that give the game away. Angela Rayner, both Deputy PM and Housing Secretary, allegedly dodging £40k in stamp duty. And a Prime Minister paralysed to act. You couldn’t script a better parable of political decay if you […]
‘The stunt is theatre with consequences’: what PR can learn from the art of outrage
The PR industry bubble loves to talk about itself. Gossip, awards, the next throwaway influencer activation engineered to blip on TikTok for 24 hours before sinking into the feed. Too often, the industry mistakes noise for impact. We live in a silo where the metrics matter more than the meaning.But, history tells us something different. […]
The media can’t get enough of Gen Z’s obsession with analogue…
The media can’t get enough of Gen Z’s obsession with analogue. Dumbphones, cassette tapes, and even playlists of gloriously bad ’90s music are trending as if they hold the secret to a better life. It’s everywhere TikTok filters, magazine spreads, curated “Y2K vibes” nostalgia packaged as salvation to an age suffocated by social media.But let’s […]
Outrage Inc. The Power of the Stunt!
I’ve spent months journeying back through the archives to explore the power of the stunt, not the limp, performative vanilla stuff we see so often today, but the disruptive acts that carried purpose, planted seeds of change, and rewired the way society thought.In a confused and difficult world, it’s easy to sneer at disruption. But […]
We criminalise the political stunt at our peril. It is a crucial art form that is impossible to ignore
We must ask ourselves: how would the heroic suffragettes or the remarkable Greenham Common women be regarded if active today? The answer is simple: they would be locked up. Just as they were locked up then. A century ago, women chained themselves to railings, set fires, endured prison and changed the world, and we celebrate their victories […]
A TechCrunch post grabbed my attention this week…
A TechCrunch post grabbed my attention this week. It covered Elon Musk’s xAI launch of Grok 4. Just when you thought the AI hype cycle couldn’t get more feverish, along comes a chatbot so clever it consults its own maker, Elon Musk, before answering controversial questions. A machine with parental dependency. Imagine your toaster refusing […]
No kiss. Just a lingering hug…
No kiss. Just a lingering hug. Nevertheless, your CEO and HR boss are caught on camera at a Coldplay concert. But in the court of public opinion, body language is guilty until proven otherwise. Cue peak Schadenfreude. And just like that, your obscure company becomes the star of a scandal no one cast you in. […]
I’ve been watching Jeff Bezos float deeper into his own irony-sodden oblivion…
From a creaking Dutch boarding house, stitched together with love, oddity, and the faded dreams of creatives, I’ve been watching Jeff Bezos float deeper into his own irony-sodden oblivion.Here at Le Domaine du Meunier, an ex-mill reborn by the mad brilliance of Ariane van Tuyll and her husband Coen, two Amsterdam visionaries who clearly value […]
Damn. I’m about to commit the cardinal sin. I just can’t help it…
Damn. I’m about to commit the cardinal sin. I just can’t help it. My feed is flooded with noise from Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. I know I shouldn’t cast any stones but screw it, here goes. Let’s talk about advertising.So we’re coming to the end of Cannes Lions week, the annual migration of […]
The most dangerous weapon today isn’t an AI weaponised drone. It’s language.
In a world buckling under chaos, spectacle, and weaponised noise, one truth cuts through: the most dangerous weapon today isn’t an AI weaponised drone. It’s language.Not the kind of 20th-century lingua franca of international relations that built bridges. The type that now distorts, seduces, and detonates. Language stripped of nuance, engineered for dominance in a […]
Robert Jenrick’s viral vigilante PR stunt on the London Underground
Robert Jenrick’s viral vigilante PR stunt on the London Underground – chasing fare dodgers like an undernourished Batman with a Westminster lanyard wasn’t law enforcement, but rather low-rent theatre. A self-shot PR spectacle staged in the fading light of relevance.This was really a display of political desperation to shake the nation out of its ennui. […]
The reign of the Prince of Match of the Day is over!
And so, it ends. The reign of the Prince of Match of the Day is over, not with scandal or disgrace, but with something far more British: moral fatigue.Gary Lineker’s journey from national treasure to divisive conscientious objector is a parable of our times, where virtue, fame, and the cultish contradictions of the BBC collide. […]
Tuesday night epiphany…
I had an epiphany on Tuesday night, sitting in a packed room at Shoreditch House full of young, switched-on, emotionally articulate souls: scarred, and staring into the algorithmic abyss. They weren’t there for influencer bollocks. They came because the event’s subject mattered. I listened and I learned something.They came to hear Rosie Viva talk about […]
Greggs vs McDonald’s: The Fast Feud
There’s a strange satisfaction in watching the mighty McDonald’s get nibbled at by a northern bakery that once sold four sausage rolls for a quid. Greggs vs McDonald’s: The Fast Feud Channel4 isn’t just a documentary — it’s a morality play for our times, with pasties as protagonists and PR as the real power behind […]