Chris Langham will never act on British television again, publicists predicted yesterday after the actor became the latest celebrity to be tainted with downloading child pornography. Mark Borkowski, of Borkowski Public Relations, said that Langham would suffer a similar fate to Gary Glitter, the glam rock singer who was jailed for four months for possessing…
Being an (un)lucky resident of Gloucestershire, I have now been hit by the lack of water. Hundreds of families are without water and the unrest in certain areas of Gloucestershire has been caused by the lack of customer care from Severn Trent Water. The big corporation business has more loyalty to its shareholders than its…
Yesterday’s Asian Cup Final in Jakarta and the repercussions in Iraq, provoked news correspondents from the BBC to claim that Iraq’s defeat of Saudi Arabia had temporarily united the divided country. Iraq beat Saudi Arabia 1-0 yesterday and celebratory gunfire was heard in Baghdad. Thousands of Iraqis had been following the match in Indonesia on…
Lyndsay Moss – The Scotsman. It was a marketing man’s dream: Heinz Cream of Tomato Soup was not only one of Britain’s iconic food brands, it also improved men’s fertility. Heinz yesterday trumpeted university research which showed that eating its soup could “give guys extra oomph”. But the soup’s rise from kitchen cupboard staple to must-buy superfood…
What an extraordinary week. Outside it’s pissing down – and it’s also raining PR masterstrokes that would find their way into any publicity hall of fame.Frankly it was not a good start, as yet another lacklustre PR survey was trundled out on behalf of a faceless insurance company. Yawn – one in five of us…
Following the destruction of the career of MGM actor William Haines, who refused to end his relationship with his gay lover Jimmy Shields and enter into a “lavender marriage” on the request of MGM, a spate of such marriages occurred so gay and lesbian couples could seek refuge in this institution. A lavender marriage is…
The insanity around the Prince free album debate is unbelievable. The Mail On Sunday giveaway yesterday of Prince’s Planet Earth caused uproar amongst the music retail stores who claimed it devalued music on every level. I myself think this is one of the two great publicity stunts so far this year. Prince’s album sales have…
The last few days have seen the broad sheets chattering over the growth of Facebook and its ability to become one of the most astounding of the web 2 offerings. This development has been driven by an extremely clever and one can argue, compelling publicity stunt. All new web platforms face the problem of sustaining…
The publicity stunt is not a tool used only by wily pr’s but has been taken on board by certain weird religious groups to further their following. For example, in 1967, Anton LaVey, the founder of the Church of Satan baptized his daughter Zeena at the Black House. This was a Victorian mansion that stood…
Reading this morning’s papers, I couldn’t help but notice the lacklustre coverage for yesterday’s “Live Earth” event. It strikes me that perhaps we’ve all got big event fatigue. Two years ago I was asked to be on a panel organised by the media magazine PR Week, to judge the greatest publicity stunts of all time. …