Mark My Words Blog
Welcome to ‘Mark My Words,’ the digital sanctuary where insight meets intrigue, and commentary sparks contemplation.
Delve into the dynamic world of PR maverick Mark Borkowski as he unravels the threads of media, culture, and communication. Mark’s blog is a treasure trove of industry wisdom, offering a backstage pass to the inner workings of publicity and the ever-evolving landscape of modern media.
Son of Barnum: A Stunt Too Far the first review in todays Scotsman
SCOTSMAN http://www.edinburgh-festivals.com/reviews.cfm?id=925692004 Son of Barnum: A Stunt Too Far KATE COPSTICK ASSEMBLY ROOMS (Venue 3) “I AM not,” says the cherubically charming Mark Borkowski, “a PR guru. I am a publicist.” But not a practitioner of what, in his final, admirably hard-hitting section, he calls “the art of the dark publicist”. Borkowski is Gandalf to the political spin doctors� Sauron. And a real wiz of the biz he is too. Mark Borkowski is a man truly, madly, deeply in love with the art of the business he is in. Not just the industry today, but its history and its heroes….
PR stunts: an expert's guide
PR stunts: an expert’s guide How do you sell tickets to your show? Make up a strange, tragic story and then sell it to the press. Mark Borkowski explains Myths and legends abound about who did what to promote which show at the Edinburgh Fringe. You can get away with things during these three weeks you wouldn’t dare attempt anywhere else. Let’s face it, nobody comes to Edinburgh to make a profit; all you can hope to do is break even, and that can be a very difficult thing to achieve with more than 1,500 events competing. Otherwise sane promoters…
Experts' verdict on Faria's TV tears
Mark Borkowski, head of the Borkowski PR agency, praised the way Ms Alam’s public image had been handled and the way she came across. “The programme obviously really wanted the chance to interview her, so the situation could be managed to her advantage,” Mr Borkowski said. “Any time there was a difficult question the way she had been coached meant she could give the answer that she wanted.” He continued: “I think there will also have been some say as to who they wanted the interviewer to be. All this meant that she came across as being intelligent and educated,…
'Me' generation takes Fringe by storm
‘Me’ generation takes Fringe by storm Real-life tales of success, excess and misfortune are taking over this year, irking professional comics Other unlikely Fringe performers whose talks draw heavily on their own lives are Simon Donald, the co-creator of Viz comic, leading PR man Mark Borkowski, American news anchor Bob Wiltfong, and Colin Hay, the former lead singer of Men at Work. Broadcaster, writer and Independent on Sunday columnist Janet Street-Porter is being partly credited with reviving interest in the autobiographical show after the success of her Edinburgh debut last year, All the Rage. “She helped to focus on this…
BEHIND THE SOFA EVERYONE!
So this is it. FIVE. My NASA moment. FOUR. Countdown to Tuesday, August 10th, THREE. 11.45am, the Wildman Room at the Assembly Rooms. TWO. I am shaking and sweating and starting to gain a glimmer of a tiny, petrified notion of what… ONE OH MY GOD WHAT AM I DOING? Will my tales of ancient publicists strike any sort of chord on the Edinburgh fringe? Is this bungee jump into the critic’s lap what I ought to be perfecting? Does this glorious Barnum-meets-Branson sort of publicity stunt still go on? Still attract an audience? Pass me The Sun, would you?…
More rambling about the FA
GIBSON’S lesson for PRs on how not to score own goals Telegraph.co.uk – London,England,UK … Mark Borkowski, another celebrity publicist, says the horsetrading tends to be more common in City, showbusiness, politics and features, where the journalists … www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/08/05/nmed05.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/08/05/ixhome.html
Ideas man championing former PR geniuses such as Jim Moran. who once sold a fridge to an Eskimo.
There’s no such thing as bad publicity AIDAN SMITH T WAS another go-on-impress-me day on the Festival desk of the Edinburgh Evening News and, really, for a hack of such tender years, I was carrying far too much cynicism in the pockets of my copy of a Paul Smith pinstriped double-breaster. These were the 1980s and, even then, the biggest arts extravaganza in the world could sap you of the will to live.
MEN KNOW F.A. ABOUT ANYTHING
Whatever bonkability has kept Sven-Goran Eriksson in the headlines during the only part of the year we should all be trying to forget the beautiful game, the Football Association have had the true dreariness of their crusty old clod-hopping male chauvinism revealed to the world. As if harking back to the mood of some secret, shady backroom deal from the 1960s, possibly with the Kray Brothers in attendance, the transcript of Colin Gibson’s ‘subtle’ approach to deal-making was printed in full in The News of the World yesterday. And sensational it was too, especially from a man paid £150,000 a…
His one-man show, Son of Barnum: A Stunt Too Far, runs at the Assembly Rooms from August 10. He recounts great publicity stunts
Edinburgh festival: Let�s talk about me now Real people are invading the stages with their life stories, says Stephen Armstrong Mark Borkowski, on the other hand, has a very successful career as one of the country�s top publicists. His one-man show, Son of Barnum: A Stunt Too Far, runs at the Assembly Rooms from August 10. He recounts great publicity stunts, from PT Barnum to today, and fits himself neatly into the tradition. Festivalgoers will especially delight in his accounts of promoting shows in previous Edinburgh years � struggling theatre companies may like to bring a notebook. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,2774-1193915,00.html
CIA's favorite PR firm, "the Rendon Group is playing a major behind-the-scenes role at the Democratic National Convention
CIA’S FAVORITE PR FIRM, RENDON GROUP, ROCKS THE DNC http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/0726rendon.htm The CIA’s favorite PR firm, “the Rendon Group is playing a major behind-the-scenes role at the Democratic National Convention in Boston, arranging first-time/real-time video broadcasts each morning to each of the 56 caucuses, serving as the event’s project manager, and coordinating 20 convention-related events, Rick Rendon, co-founder of the firm, told O’Dwyer’s. Rendon hired Polycom Video Systems to set up secure servers in 22 hotels so leading Democrats can address each caucus at their 8 a.m. breakfast for a ‘virtual convention.’ … Rendon said the Boston convention will mark the…
Edinburgh Festival archive
Blast from the past Festival madness circa August 1994
Son of Barnum continues
Mark Borkowski, Publicist Borkowski, who staged the biggest custard-pie fight ever in the Millennium Dome (3,312 pies in two minutes), has set himself a challenge on a par with making a romance about estate agents. His one-man show will proclaim that we should think of publicists as heroes. Son of Barnum: A Stunt Too Far will track down the ‘troubled souls’ of early practitioners to reveal that this skill is no modern mystery. Borkowski, whose clients include Warner Bros, is adamant that Max Clifford and other PR men should not be regarded as ‘the custodians of the art’; he’s there…
Will the new ad channel work?
AFTER the break … another break: a new channel for advertisement … Independent – London,England,UK … Mark Borkowski, a media analyst and expert on the advertising industry, predicted last night that the channel would be a “five-minute wonder”. … http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/media/story.jsp?story=544146
CLIFF RICHARD! NOT QUITE WHAT I CLAIMED
Jim Moran once said “There is nothing more dismal than a fact!” so in this morning’s Scotland on Sunday was the following news story by Aidan Smith: Sir Cliff’s Wimbledon singalong was all a PR stunt… DEPENDING on your tastes, it was a golden moment in the history of British music or a cringe-making aural atrocity. Whatever the ultimate judgment of cultural commentators and musicologists, Sir Cliff Richard held Wimbledon’s centre-court crowd spellbound with a spontaneous singalong one rainy summer day in 1996. But Richard’s supposedly impromptu ‘unplugged’ session at Wimbledon was a stunt dreamed up by one of the…
HEY, COOL HAIR. CUBA LIBRE, ANYONE?
The US election campaign PR drive is moving into the next phase. Never mind what’s coming out of the mouths: from now on it’s about posing and preening. Gone from centre-stage are the policy issues, gone the personality-based in-fighting about running mates and left of this party, right of that. Now we’re into full-blown Stature Proving, sprinkled with a light dusting of celebrity super-confidence. You see it less in the incumbent than in the challengers, but it’s there all right. When Kerry tagged his introduction of John Edwards, (previously a sworn rival, remember) with the memorable comment about ‘We’ve got…
EDINBURGH FRINGE: a walk down memory lane
Ian Shuttleworth’s review of Taboo featuring Pink & Squeezy conceived by Dexter Augustus, August 1992 Gimmicks, gimmicks, gimmicks. Everyone needs gimmicks to get their show noticed among the 1100 here on the Fringe… and just about everyone has one. It might just be a good review blurb on their leaflet… “Nominated for the Independent Award,” said a bloke thrusting a leaflet into my hand; odd that – I’m on the panel. It had just met and we’d never heard of it. Other enticements are more grandiose: free sachets of Angel Delight, or a complimentary tab at the bar. In fact,…
Marriage stunt was one of the best
Marriage stunt was one of the best BRMB’s infamous Two Strangers and a Wedding competition was among the best ever radio publicity stunts, an industry expert told the Radio Festival in Birmingham yesterday. The on-air marriage of Greg Cordell and Carla Germaine in 1999 had all the ingredients to attract extra listeners and revenue to the station, said PR analyst Mark Borkowski. Mr Borkowski said the event, which was heavily criticised by the Church and MPs, had proved a massive success for the station. He said: “It was something that everybody was talking about. It was a precursor to Big…
COME IN, BIRMINGHAM: ARE YOU RECEIVING ME?
Chrysalis Radio’s chief exec Phil Riley had me in the hot seat on stage at The Radio Academy’s annual festival yesterday, in front of radio’s great & gross. On the topic “Improperganda – Wild, Wicked and Worth it?” we cheered everyone up with tales of great radio publicity stunts and included a rare appearance by veteren American producer Sam Fields, whom they flew in from NY at my suggestion. Sam worked with Orson Welles on the infamous radio production of H.G.Wells’ “War of the Worlds” which had half 1930s America leaping in their cars and heading for the hills to…