Following on from my blog Mark My Words, about stunts and stories being done before, the idea to pander to animals and treat them like humans (for example, the well publicised dog wedding that one of my consumer teams organised for Harrods’ “Anything is Possible” campaign) has been around for decades. Way back in 1951,…
The world renowned venue at Olympia in London saw the Bertram Mills Circus grace its doors in 1919. Members of the Mills circus agreed to a publicity stunt which involved catering for the whole Bertram Mills Circus. As it was nearly Christmas, the team put on a lavish Christmas lunch with all the trimmings. The…
By Ian Burrell 20th June 2007 Just how big is Glastonbury? Glastonbury 2007, which begins on Friday, is expected to have an attendance of 177,500, making it the biggest since the festival started in 1970. Organisers sold 137,500 tickets in one hour and 45 minutes on 1 April. The first festival, the brain child of…
Bernard Manning is dead. And somewhere in London there is a full size wax effigy of Mr Manning that I commissioned in 1992. Jonathan Margolis’ obituary in today’s Independent was staggering. I particularly liked his comment that “Bernard Manning was in a sense the last “legitimate” racist in Britain. Legitimate because the gags which caused…
I note that my blog about the recycling of stories and stunts got some response;one in particular caught my eye, from a Heather Yaxley. Her comments go to prove my point that nothing is original anymore, because somewhere way back in time, someone else had the idea. It’s all been done before. I wasn’t suggesting…
These days it’s almost impossible to promote anything to kids, alcohol, cigarettes, chocolate, burgers, chips are all no go areas, but not so in the 1920’s. Jim Moran was hired to promote a now defunct brand of beer. In true Moran style, he took a pantomime horse into numerous bars across California as a guerrilla…
Fergus Sheppard, The Scotsman. The Spice Girls, the five-member act which crusaded to pop superstardom on the theme of “girl power” in the 1990s, spawning a host of copycats along the way, was last night set for a reunion. Rumours have been sweeping the showbiz world for weeks, fuelled by snaps of band members meeting…
In boardroom terms it was a hostile takeover. Katie Hopkins, the poison-tongued “alpha female” contestant on The Apprentice, fired Sir Alan Sugar last night and walked out on the £100,000 job. After months of acidic put-downs, Ms Hopkins, a 31-year-old brands consultant, had manoeuvred her way past 14 rivals to reach the grand final of…
I was sent a note about this blog today http://bringtheloveback.com/about/ The author seems to have made the film and makes the following statement. “I would like to know which advertisers are already bringing back the love? What I am looking for are examples of campaigns, strategies, maybe even brands or products that show that the…
When I originally compiled the book “Improperganda: Art of the Publicity Stunt”, my research astounded me as I realized that a lot of what I had done over the past years in PR wasn’t original. Similar things had been done before in some way, shape or form. It was a case of innocent misunderstanding because…