In praise of Cloverfield
I love the hype that has surrounded the release of Cloverfield. After all its nearly ten years since the Blair Witch Project stole our attention. We all marveled then at the way the web would reinvent the marketing of movies .
Devil's Own
To those outside the profession, PR has always seemed a cut throat business, and the associated businesses around it are certainly adding to that reputation of ruthlessness. Take for example the recruitment agencies; about 20% of them are decent, the other 80% would shaft their own grandmother, thus adding to the already poor reputation that PR […]
Knickers
Students of PR, take note. To understand what gets the media’s knickers in a twist, look no further than Jeremy Paxman and the M&S gusset debate. Any good alchemist of spin will sniff the aroma. The well known inquisitor and self effacing presenter of serious political debate, focuses his precious attention on something as banal […]
"Hello Idiot PR is expanding!
Stupid PR companies don’t you just love them. Great entertainment on a wet afternoon. For the third week running – despite my sarcastic prompts I have been sent a breathless Friday email. – “Hello Idiot PR is expanding! Idiot PR are looking for new fresh talent across various departments. If you are passionate about brands, […]
Chocolate Facts
It is nice that the Telegraph has reminded the great unwashed about our Easter stunt for Thornton’s last year and the effect that it has had on the recent sales figures. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/ Thornton’s pockets sweet sales While high street consumers have been reluctant to delve into their pockets of late, Thornton’s has proved they still indulge […]
Pro Nuclear Push
I find Andy Rowell’s blog compelling; his recent article on the The Covert Pro-Nuclear Push in Schools is very disturbing. Time to dust down my DVD of Edge of Darkness http://www.spinwatch.org/content/blogcategory/248/30/
Big tobacco in Africa
Family weddings, funerals and birthdays always throw up the black sheep of the family. At a recent shindig a distant relative of my wife turned up in his rather extraordinary chrome penis extension. The guests, like proverbial fish wives, gossiped relentlessly – inebriated by vintage champagne and in hush tones speculated on the source of […]
Giant among dwarves
I saw a Neval motorbike on the street earlier today, and I had only one thought. My great friend and first freelance client was the crazy Marcel Steiner who ran his Theatre off the side of one twenty years ago. Marcel is a forgotten genius. I found the obituary I penned for the Guardian. He […]
2008 The Year of PR – don’t make me laugh
Times are tough in the communications business and it’s going to be a grim 2008 if we believe the statistics. The IPA noted that in the last three months of 2007 there was a large cut back on marketing spend by the major brands. In fact, it was the biggest fall in spending for the […]
Show Me The Record Sales
The media’s feeding frenzy on poor old Britney’s latest crisis has suggested that further slips into the pit of despair, have actually been a boon to her record sales. Clearly the media who feed from her problems balance it out by suggesting that they can gaup and plunder column inches and that somehow it does […]
Richey: Forlorn figure with his life in a few plastic bags …or a 'vengeful, hateful' ex-con?
THERE was a strong wind gusting through the cornfields as Kenny Richey arrived at his brother’s rural Ohio home, ahead of tomorrow’s return to Edinburgh – delayed a day by fog. He strolled from the car, stuck his nose in the air and ambled for the front door. It is likely Richey will be heading […]
Madeleine McCann the movie
The wires are hot this afternoon with the news that the family of Madeleine McCann’s have spoken to the IMG media group about turning the story of her disappearance into a film. Once again Team McCann through the brilliant family spokesman for Gerry and Kate McCann, Clarence Mitchell, has come up with a brilliant angle […]
Hillary Clinton and her love affair with John Major's mega phone
So Hillary Clinton’s campaign has reached for a soapbox and megaphone in a desperate attempt to regain momentum to counter the compelling charisma of Barack Obama who is leading the polls. The British broadsheets are all drawing parallels with John Major who pulled his ’92 campaign up with a pair of cosmic sock garters using the […]
The Year In Ideas
The Year in Ideas – The Times 29th December 2007 From Islam-friendly finance to the fall of Z-list celebrity, and from the rise of supercrunching to the return of the bonkbuster, leading commentators and Times writers chart the major cultural, economic and social changes of 2007 and offer their predictions on the shape of the […]
Spinmaster 2007
2007 will go down in history as an extremely busy year for the humble spin meisters in mediaville. There were plenty of things to occupy the media that had a PR overtone, beginning with the meltdown over celebrity Big Brother’s racist poppadom gate which gave Channel 4 a lot to think about and threatened the […]
The President's New Helping Hand
The Associated Press has reported that the next U.S. Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs will be James K. Glassman. He will replace the infamous PR czar, Karen Hughes, one of the most important people in Bush’s government. Glassman had served on the Advisory Group on Public Diplomacy for the Arab and Muslim World, […]
Does anyone else smell stunt?
We are all aware that Britney Spears showbiz world is more than a little bit bizarre. Well – reports suggest that Britney is in talks to star in a spoof movie. Spears has reportedly been asked to play the Virgin Mary in a modern Nativity story called ‘Sweet Baby Jesus.’ by French producer Phillippe Rebboah. No […]
Freddie Fields uber agent RIP – another great bites the dust.
Whilst researching my book I interviewed the great Freddie Fields, former co-founder of CMA which then became ICM, former producer and then head of MGM-UA Studios. Frankly Fields was a legend. The sad news is that he died on Tuesday and the funeral is today at 2 PM in Hollywood. It’s sad but Freddie told […]
Fast Track
So Fast Track has bought Stuart Higgins Communications. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/dec/11/marketingandpr.pressandpublishing I am pleased for Higgy – an extremely effective operator. Alan Pascoe’s company has been very quiet but there was a time when Pascoe was omnipresent. I have not got a sense that he flexes muscle. Fast Track desperately need Stuartm and Pascoe will benefit from […]