It’s lonely at the top. The modern CEO is expected to have a voice, to articulate values and, most importantly, be available. Yet there is little to prepare even the most media savvy executive for dealing with crisis once the internal support network begins to turn on you, with many boards happy to see leaders hung out to dry. Take the biggest medialand shock of the week: the announcement that WPP had launched a misconduct investigation against its CEO and founder Sir Martin Sorrell. The details of the allegations have not been disclosed and Sir Martin strongly denies any wrongdoing….

With all due respect to the excellent investigative journalism that exposed the large-scale data harvesting by Cambridge Analytica  – it will not bring down Facebook. Commentators were quick to point to share price volatility and hashtag protests as indicators of doom. The social network has indeed been slow to ventilate the stench surrounding its relationship to the London-based consultancy. For many the apology by Mark Zuckerberg was too little too late. But the very fact the website’s founder has been so mealy-mouthed with his response demonstrates a real belief in the invincibility of the Facebook brand. He’s right. Advertisers may grumble…

When Margaret Thatcher launched a task force to retake the Falklands from Argentine forces, her message was simple: she was defending the rights of the islanders to self-determination. In 1982, after years of domestic inertia, economic stagnation and government infighting, the British public endorsed this decisive act- and it won her a landslide reelection a year later. No doubt this political mythology of standing up to the external aggressor was in another female Conservative PM’s mind when she condemned the Kremlin for the “brazen” use of a nerve agent in Salisbury which put an ex-spy and his daughter in critical…

It shouldn’t surprise us that brands have attempted to make money from outrage. The opposite of virtue is not Vice. It’s the Daily Mail. This week, Centre Parcs announced that it would be joining an increasing number of brands – Lego, Paperchase, the Southbank Centre – who have chosen to stop advertising in the newspaper. The catalyst this time was an article by Richard Littlejohn, in which he approached the subject of same-sex parenting with his typical pose of bemused middle Englander – all the more sharply defined from the vantage point of his Florida villa. The piece – which…

Are they, aren’t they? Will they, won¹t they separate? Forget the TV soaps. This week has been all about the Cheryl and Liam. Earlier in the week the Sun¹s showbiz guru Dan Wootton broke the story that the showbiz couple were about to split. According to his scoop, the dynamic duo were struggling to keep their relationship afloat. His breaking news caused an avalanche of Twitter and social media commentary as the veracity of the leak was debated. It’s highly likely that the duo’s PR flak toiled through each day to try and correct the story. Most news junkies comprehend…

Even in his lifetime the work of John Williams Waterhouse rarely made much of a stir in the art world. He is often classed as a pre-Raphaelite although he was painting his scenes of Arthurian chic long after the brotherhood were fashionable. Nobody would have noticed the sudden removal from display of his work Hylas And the Nymphs had not the Manchester Art Gallery sent out an announcement that it had done just that in order to “prompt debate”. The painting, which features a handsome, muscle-clad youth being seduced by topless water nymphs, was not a particularly obvious offering for…

Pinned under the duvet; smothered with decongestant, comforted by the warm embrace of Night Nurse; I’ve suffered a rather tedious week. Although I’ve been struck down by a particularly nasty, industrial strength man flu virus, I’ve had sometime, to catch up on a couple of interesting talking points. Firstly the Ad Contrarium is an important weekly blog to devour. An insightful view of the issues gripping ad-land. Never a blogger to complain about splinters in his derriere, The Ad Contrarium always succeeds in digging deep; manoeuvring past fleeting flimflam, jargon, trends, false goals of contemporary Adland. Weekly he touches a…

The Presidents Club ball narrative, fittingly, is still high on the news agenda. Hourly, we hear many correctly de-cry the event as appalling, shameful, disgusting and deplorable. Great Ormond Street Hospital, which received £530,000 from the Presidents Club between 2009 and 2016, said it will return the donations. The “most read” story in The Financial Times’ online history has prompted apoplectic reactions in the media, the business world and on social media, where #PresidentsClub topped the trends on Twitter. Social and professional shaming might work up to a point, but rich and powerful men are involved. They will fight to…

You might have missed the kerfuffle recently between the highly respected theatre critic, Lyn Gardner and Cirque Du Soleil. There was much debate about the Circus taking steps to stop the critic reviewing their new production. Evidently Ms Gardner found out she was uninvited from a press night. She had been approved to review the London outing of Ovo, at the Royal Albert Hall, pre-Christmas. However, when “the admin” arrived in town she was told she was no longer welcome. The precious circus commercial juggernaut was clearly still miffed by her one-star review for last year’s Amaluna. With the new…

Speed kills. This week the velocity of the news agenda has been shaped by various narratives driven by the telegraph wire of Twitter. From Logan Paul to Toby Young, the week’s anguish proves that it’s a deafening noise that drowns out something more profound and enlightened, ideas and insight.  Each incident provoked angst, each instance echoed the diverse passions of the Twitterati; a mutant debate without form or substance. Mere grunts and reflected deliberations of opprobrium. Meanwhile, we learn little from this tumult and roar. Of course, the crowd must speak its mind openly and debate disagreements honestly, but Twitter…

1. Real News will strike back in 2018 and is already doing so. The New York Times, The Economist and Wall Street Journal are all now making real money digitally and print circulations remain significant. The same goes for titles ranging from the i to Private Eye and a resurgent, Jeff-Bezos-owned Washington Post. The Times of London is financially stronger behind a pay wall that did not work for The Sun. Readers are even responding to The Guardian’s desperate plea for cash to help support its journalism. 2. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube will come under real pressure to actually step…

So the world is talking about a cheeky Poundland Elf tea bagging Barbie. Well I say the world, or at least  8.6 million Twitter users in the UK,  anyway the filter bubble is frothing and jumping up and down. Perhaps we shouldn’t forget the UK population is 66+ million – by my estimate thats still a small percentage, certainly not universal outrage In this  new age of political correctness  a ‘screw it all’ brand campaign from a discount store has thrown up the finger. Nothing says bugger the PC brigade like an elf doing unspeakable things to Barbie! Poundland, scandalised…

We all knew Meghan Markle was coming and that she was going to be news. But as Prince Harry’s new fianceé admitted herself in that joyful interview, even she didn’t quite realise how huge. If ever a news story coincided with the zeitgeist and had a perfect symbol, Meghan is it. Her official arrival this week was a stone landing in glassy water. The ripple effects are already being felt by the Royal Family and the media alike. This is the ultimate disruption and brand owners and marketers should take note. The ultimate heritage brand has understood the need for…

Of course, my filter bubble matters. Some argue it’s a world that matters most to me and it’s true that it shifts daily, shaping my views and an ethereal existence in my head. The barrage of information I consume is vast and instant. Nevertheless, I constantly check to consider how it shapes my perception and experience or whether it should be constrained by rules. The rules that persist are in the main, the outcome of rational intellectual argument, supressing a visceral response. What is right, what is wrong, the ever-changing wave of public opinion. Nothing can be set. Once there is…

Increasingly it seems the rich have a dilemma. When does the reputational damage incurred by being hauled across the coals for using tax havens outweigh the financial benefits? Granted, siphoning wealth through a Maltese bank to buy a Lithuanian shopping mall isn’t exactly John le Carre levels of sinister. But when it happens to Bono we’ve got a problem- all his worthy campaigning now risks being made history. The Paradise Papers – a leak of 13.4m documents, mostly from one leading firm in offshore finance- reminds us that investigative journalism is in buoyant health. This, magnified by the thundering echo…

Where were you on the day Donald J Trump released not quite all of the classified files on the JFK? It does not take a mind riven by conspiratorial angst to suspect that the president’s championing of the scheduled release of the million-plus page report on Kennedy’s assassination is a distraction tactic. But what from? The accusations that he offended the widow of a fallen soldier? Or could it be the vitriolic war of words hurled at the Donald by two senior Republicans? Or maybe it’s the number of commentators drawing links between Trump’s conduct towards women and that of…

If the money’s flowing the questions stop. This was what precipitated the downfall of Bell Pottinger: the PR firm lost the plot over what its South African subsidiary was up to and see a toxic campaign ultimately reduced the behemoth to rubble. Similar dynamics are at work in the conditions that allowed 30 years of predatory abuse to be allegedly perpetrated by Harvey Weinstein. I have heard countless Harvey stories over the last week from industry figures none of whom were particularly surprised by the revelations that appeared in the New York Times and New Yorker. But why wasn’t anything said? Their responses were…

The saga of #Baldingate continues to rage. Showbiz journalist Ginny Dougary claims Clare Balding’s PR team took heavy-handed liberties with her interview copy, removing unflattering sections and inserting self-promoting fluff. Balding and the editors of the publication maintain that the responsibility of the edit lay entirely in the hands of the magazine. We’d half expect this from, say, Beyonce or Madonna but Clare -say it isn’t so. Whatever the truth the case illustrates a perception of what showbiz journalism has become. In the US copy approval has long been an established trade-off. One well-connected client in the film industry recently…

As the artificial mist from its post-conference grime party settles Labour’s proximity to power hasn’t seemed this real in ages. This is a remarkable turnaround for a party that only last year seemed utterly divided between the doldrums of the conference centre and the radical energy of the Momentum fringe events. How can the Tories under Maybot possibly compete? Much depends on next week’s leader speech at the Conservative conference. As a weakened prime minister May is in no position to roll out radical new policies or deviate from the narrow path delineated by the challenges of Brexit. Yet this…