ROBERT Burns has become the first real person to feature on a Coca-Cola bottle. The special edition reproduces the image of Scotland’s national poet between the antlers of a stag to mark Homecoming Scotland 2009, in a colourful red, white and gold tribute. Although an image of Santa Claus has previously appeared on a bottle…
It is already one of the most eagerly anticipated films of the year, but there are few promotional posters on display and the trailers have yet to be screened. Bruno, which stars Sacha Baron Cohen as his latest alter ego, a gay Austrian fashion presenter, has redefined the way films are marketed, masterminding a series…
There’s not that much of a gap between Phineas Taylor Barnum, grandmaster of the freak show, and Simon Cowell. Both Barnum and Cowell are exemplars of transmuting showbiz into mega-biz gold. The difference is that we look back now, 150 years later, and judge the freakshows that made Barnum’s name as exploitative and degrading. I…
A film, by Aaron Stone, featuring Mark Borkowski instructing a couple of wannabe celebrities on the perils of fame.
An article in today’s Independent on brand name changes, comebacks and stunts, mentioning the Borkowski Wispa campaign and quoting me from a blog, originally published here. “We should really have learned from the past. Cadbury started making Wispa bars again two years ago after an online campaign by chocoholics supposedly nostalgic about their 1980s heyday….
I’m still recovering from a sold out Hay Festival appearance and the blazing sun. I’d forgotten how wonderful the Festival can be when the weather’s good! The discussion, Hype and Glory, with the Guardian’s Marina Hyde and our excellent chair, Paul Blezard, was wide ranging and got an excellent response from the audience. Marina wanted…
Neal’s Yard have committed a grave PR error by backing out of the Guardian’s You Ask They Answer debate on homeopathic treatments and going into hiding. Twitter has been in a twirl about it all morning. In an age when there is a need for transparency in all things, Neal’s Yard have to fight to…
What do ex-pop star Dane Bowers and the BNP leader, Nick Griffin, have in common? They’re both publicity predators, prowling at the fringes of big news and ready to leap in and attach their teeth into the rump of a story that will get them attention. Griffin is all over the news at the moment,…
We asked a panel of experts how they would solve Parliament’s problems If you were to pick out one MP’s claim as highlighting the worst excess, which would it be and why? Sir Peter Viggers and his duck house. It’s not the amount of money that causes concern, but the underlying cast of mind. There…
Day fifteen of the Telegraph’s ongoing revelations about MP’s expenses rumbles into view with no end in sight and I’ve just recorded a piece for the Trevor Macdonald show on the affair – another in a long list of opinions given to the media. It may seem easy for a PR pundit to hand out…