My Google alert threw something interesting up this morning: KFC officials used an armored car to move a scrap of paper from one secure location to another on September 9 th, guarded by a former New York police detective. Why? Because on it, Col. Harland Sanders had scribbled his original recipe for quick-to-prepare chicken, a…
“The reproductions are ubiquitous. A real sunset is infinitely more difficult to experience, even when it blazes before us. “ Death can be really cruel: last week it robbed us of the comic, anarchic life-force that was Ken Campbell and then swiftly tore the unique, reassuring and incandescent presence of Ritsaert Ten Cate from the…
This article, on the betrayal of Heather Mills’ secrets by her publicist, was published, in edited form, in today’s Guardian. This, however, is the unedited version. Michele Elyzabeth’s kiss-and-tell all story about her working relationship with Heather Mills in The News of The World is probably the most heinous crime that any publicist can ever…
The launch party for The Fame Formula last Friday, by the side of a steaming pool in the glorious Artspa at Lower Mills Estate near Cirencester, went, if you’ll forgive the pun, swimmingly. The much-missed Ken Campbell, who passed away a week ago, was supposed to have been at the launch to perform, but his…
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…
“Most people have this image in their heads of tobacco executives jet-setting around the world on private planes, eating foie gras as they count their money. Not me. I like to ride with the people. Know your clients. My people cram themselves into a tiny seat, pop a Xanex, and dream of the moment when…
The extraordinary pictures that adorn both the broadsheets and tabloids of Darren Taylor belly-flopping into a tiny paddling pool to break the high diving record may be astonishing, but they would depress any of the old stuntsters. They grab the attention but what is more arresting is the pathetic crowd gathered to marvel as Taylor…
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…