Big Brother’s latest series ends tonight, bringing to a close another marathon session of ogling at a group of people desperate for fame but with nothing to recommend them but dysfunctional personalities, loud mouths and deep wells of (often misguided) self-belief. It really doesn’t have to be that way, as this entry to the Fame…
Hats off to Electronic Arts for having the balls to stage a marvellous publicity stunt. You know they are onto a winner when a stunt is branded “irresponsible” by MPs. The PR caper was to give away £20,000’s worth of fuel at a petrol station in north London as part of a promotion for a…
Came back from a talk about The Fame Formula at The Space, Brighton’s monthly arts and media event in Joogleberry Playhouse last night, on the slow train. The train was the only slow thing about the night, thankfully. There was a fantastic spirit at the event – about 250 people showed up and asked interested,…
Ken Campbell, who died on Sunday, August 31st 2008, was a great man and a real friend to The Fame Formula. Not only did he help me launch the book at the beginning of August, but much of his inspired work echoed the work of some of the great publicists detailed in the book; most…
The Sunday Telegraph published an excellent review of The Fame Formula by Jenny McCartney, alongside Look at Me by Peter Whittle, yesterday; a small chink of light in a day mostly coloured by the death of my old friend Ken Campbell, who helped me launch the book only a month ago. Jenny McCartney enjoys an…
I noted a wire story this morning that suggested that Britney Spears is “highly unstable” – the singer is “sensitive” and “insecure” and is in the last chance salon (AGAIN!). Flip back to the wire reports that were circulating about Barbara La Marr back in the 1920’s, and a story I mention in The Fame…
Reviews of The Fame Formula are still rolling in – here are a couple of good ones from the net. Fame corrupts and corrodes, giving people a license to behave badly, writes Geordie Grieg in the Big Book review of The Fame Formula at The First Post website, “Andy Warhol got it spot-on when he…
News has come in that Apple are attempting to sell iPhones in Poland by paying actors to queue outside the stores to whoop up interest in the all-singing, all-dancing phone which is released there on Friday. According to Reuters, a spokesman has said: “We have these fake queues at front of 20 stores around the…
Here’s another selection of links to radio appearances talking about The Fame Formula. To listen to Mark speaking about The Fame Formula on On the Record with Eric Schwartzman, a regular podcast available on iTunes telling the story behind the story – mainstream journalists, influential bloggers and podcasters talking in depth about how technology is…
The Daily Mail ran a second review of The Fame Formula last Friday, reproduced below until it goes online and can be linked to, by Lydia Slater under the Critic’s Choice banner.