Channel 4’s decision to air images of Princess Diana’s fatal crash is just the latest in a long history of courting controversy by Mark Borkowski It has been bubbling for weeks like a witches’ brew, intoxicating the media and public alike: “Princess Diana – not another bloody documentary.” The storm finally breaks tonight with the…
Over 50,000 people have downloaded an organ donor registration form since Friday night’s hoax tv broadcast in which three people competed for a dying woman’s kidney. Some 1.2 million people watched the broadcast on public channel BNN, which had been condemned by politicians, doctors and commentators around the globe. The woman was revealed at the…
Fairy-tale romances used to involve blushing brides and charming princes. Today’s ideal is messier but, as Amy Winehouse and Blake Fielder-Civil have shown, still potent The Independent. 02 June 2007 Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes it most certainly is not. When the singer Amy Winehouse, 23, and the “music video assistant” Blake Fielder-Civil, 25, exchanged…
Programme’s terminally ill patient was an actor. Dutch stunt praised by media commentators . The Guardian Saturday June 2, 2007 It was decried as the show that would break the reality TV format’s back. The makers of the Dutch De Grote Donorshow (The Big Donor Show) promised a one-off programme in which a terminally ill…
PROFILE: Andy Coulson: David Cameron believes he has pulled off another dazzling coup in appointing Andy Coulson, the street-smart former editor of the News of the World, as the Tories’ director of communications. Sceptics wonder if it is a stunt that will backfire like Cameron’s bicycle. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article1875732.ece
The great Jim Moran was offered a fine sum to take on the publicity for a toy shop in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and he at once came up with an amazing stunt to promote the store. Christmas was looming and as thousands of children were awaiting the descent of Santa down their chimneys, Moran decided…
I was approached late yesterday afternoon by a contestant on this year’s Big Brother – civilians that is, not celebrities. I cannot even remember which series this is; it has been going for so long. After all the race row shenanigans, I hope the new series has a change of zest; its reputation is finely…
In today’s competitive society, where anyone can get their fifteen minutes of fame, everyone has their price. Large bags of cash to buy opinion are likely to turn “gamekeepers into poachers” as we see today in the case of Alan Milburn. Of course PepsiCo UK would want to get Alan Milburn, the former health secretary,…
A recent interview I gave for “Programme Notes: Case Studies for locating experimental theatre” about the role of marketing in growing audiences for experimental theatre.