One of the perils of being a publicist, for me at least, is having to go through the papers thoroughly every single day. I’ve been doing it for years and years, but instead of it getting easier, it’s fast becoming a chore. The reason for this is the sheer amount of trivia that clogs the…
An interesting treatment for a new reality show was emailed into our office today. I urge you to read the treatment. Can it be real THE SHOW: “The most nail biting, adrenaline soaked game show on earth” Ten kids aged between 11 and 14 are marooned on an exotic island thousands of miles from school,…
I noticed in today’s Guardian, Owen Gibson’s article about how adverts these days are attracting a record number of complaints. The advertising industry watchdog’s annual report is published today, and it lists stylised violence, same sex kisses and religious offence as some of the top ten most complained about adverts for last year. An advert…
This morning we heard that the mother of Madeleine McCann, the missing girl who was snatched from her parents’ holiday home in Portugal last Thursday, has made a desperate appeal to whoever is responsible not to hurt her daughter. The British public take it for granted that the Police use the media, but what they…
The papers are really feasting on the disgrace of Lord Browne for lying to the High Court about where he met Jeff Chevalier. The real disgrace, in the eyes of the homophobic media, was not the perjury, but the fact that Browne had delved into ‘seedy’ gay websites and hitched up with an entrepreneurial rent…
Does anybody really like Ryan Air? I had the misfortune of travelling to Dublin in one of their blue and yellow cigar tubes of the sky; it was a deeply depressing experience. Does no thrills mean rude? The staff were not unlike East German Stassi circa 1953. I hope that we will all be forced…
Publicity stunts that cause indignation stretch back for hundreds of years, but this week media indignation continued to heap on Sony Play Station, in fact it has soared to Number one for a stunt to outrage all outrages. A row has been ignited over animal cruelty and the ethics of the computer industry by Sony’s…
Hugh Grant’s brush with the law for a cafuffle with a rouge snapper has resulted in my inbox being besieged by requests from fevered media outlets wanting me to comment on whether his career is over . In the 24/7 news cycle, Hugh is a top topic after losing it with a papp, and many are of the…
I found this interesting nugget from Joe Eszterhas excellent book “The Devils Gude to Hollywood” PR folk take note! Screenwriter Dalton Trumbo: “The art of lying is the art of the practical. It ought never be indulged in for the pure pleasure of the thing, since over usage dulls the instrument, corrodes the character, and…
I am surrounded by blogs not unlike a plague of locusts. Attached to every email signature that arrives in my inbox from a fellow PR uber cheese, is another link to yet another wacky blog. Cleaning off this smelly, vacuous, verbal diarrhoea, I urge fellow travellers to focus on the issues at hand. This current…