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.
Bradley Wiggins- a new breed of celebrity
This post originally appeared yesterday on The Huffington Post. Bradley Wiggins’ success in the Tour de France was testament to the willpower, training and raw talent of an individual. His stellar status in the media- whilst certainly not hindered by his victory – has more to do with his suitability as a new kind of celebrity in the post-Leveson world. Wiggins is perfect fodder for a media conscious of a need to prove its moral worth and a public operating zero tolerance for excess or frippery in its icons. Frugal, modest, for the most part softly spoken, Wiggins nonetheless radiates…
Crisps, schoolkids and rumblings of Olympic legacy trouble
The latest draconian sponsorship enforcement measures for London 2012 were spread across the tabloids yesterday. Allegedly, the angelic schoolkids selected for Danny Boyle’s green and pleasant opening ceremony will be forced by sponsor Adidas to either wear their trainers, or trainers with no branding visible. Meanwhile, reports have come in of police guards forced to decant their lunches, airport style, into clear plastic bags to avoid inadvertently advertising rivals of food brand sponsors. Of course, it’s only confirmation of what we already know- the expectations of Olympic sponsors are a marketing cliché from a bygone era. These measures were always…
Bob Diamond and the Perils of Opacity
After a period of quivering, the Barclay’s house of cards finally crumbled this week, with Marcus Agius’s remarkable u-turn and Bob Diamond’s final resignation. The whole confusion points to something of a head in the sand culture among senior leadership, with mistakes perhaps ignored and accountability certainly a convoluted issue. Barclays’ has certainly had a wake up call to the realities of doing business in the Now Economy- they are a goliath, and they’ve found that there are plenty of Davids around with access to plenty of stones. It’s interesting, however, that these dramatic collapses so rarely correspond to the…
Harnessing the crowd, and knowing what they want (what they really really want)
The tremendous response this week to the launch of Viva Forever! The Musical(manhandled by my esteemed colleague Dee McCourt and her team of pixies) probably came as a surprise to many in the higher echelons of the arts and media world. Yet the tremendous outpourings on twitter, not to mention the reams of coverage and the national front pages, are testament to the power of a great brand used well. The musical will be- permit me to say it- fabulous, thanks to the astute professionalism of all involved, but we are reminded, too, of the enduring power of a nostalgia…
What brands can learn from Jimmy Carr's mistakes
The issues arising from scrutiny of Jimmy Carr’s tax affairs have much to teach us about the proper handling of a crisis and structuring of a brand strategy in the Now economy. The affair encapsulates problems which are endemic to any brand- the reason I’ve enjoyed giving some much commentary on the whole sordid business is that they are problems which I set up my new business to help address. Most pertinently, it has much to teach about when smart thinking should be brought into play- a little disruptive thought and hard work in a time of peace can come…
My Thoughts on The Olympic Torch Fiasco from Early June
The Mail’s furore at the Olympic torch sponsor-gate is misplaced. It’s emerged that, whilst a large proportion of torch bearers are the promised saintly examples of youthful attainment and inspiration, a few are portly middle managers called Kevin, whose achievements stretch little further than turning up to work for a company whose coffers are helping fund the relay. To which I say, what did you expect? It’s reasonable to want to have a go on a toy you’re paying for. The issue here isn’t sponsorship in sport, it’s the way that sponsorship is sold to the public. According to official…
A Major Record Deal
At Borkowski towers we took in John Major’s statesmanlike Leveson testimony with bated breath, gathered around a single laptop like blond-mopped 30s tots listening timorous but resolute to the velvety tones of Churchill on the wireless, the glow of the screen illuminating our haggard faces like a ray of hope stealing through the curtains of ignorance which mask the grubby windows of press transparency. Eyes locked in half-closed intensity, hair cemented into the iron permanence usually seen, nay felt, only in the ancient standing stones of the Earth’s wild corners, he dids’t bestride the narrow courtroom like a colossus. His…
The Royals and Us: Is it Really So Rosy, Or Just Another Fad?
The following originally appeared on huffingtonpost.co.uk on June 2nd In the run-up to the Jubilee juggernaut, the western media has become obsessed with the newfound brand success of the British Royal Family aka Brand GB – pomp and circumstance consolidated holdings. Whatever your feelings on Good Queen Bess and her spawn, it’s impossible to ignore the remarkable difference in public attitudes-particularly among younger demographics- to those you’d have found at a similar point in safety-pinned ’77 or icily indifferent ’02. However, is it all really so rosy? Or is this just another fad? Perhaps, arguably, the greatest PR turnaround for…
Martyr Coulson
A good sacrifice is one that is not necessarily sound but leaves your opponent dazed and confused.
The Eurovision Spin Contest- Symptom of a Neutered Press?
Looking forward to kicking back for some good old fashioned guilty pleasure in front of Eurovision this Saturday? Not as much as the President of Azerbaijan. His eagerness to use the contest for international relations purposes has been evident since his just slightly hyperbolic description of his nation’s 2011 triumph as ‘a victory for the people of Azerbaijan and the Azerbaijani state.’ Mr Aliyev has since been splashing out on PR across Europe, centring on the lobbying activity of the suitably dystopian sounding Consultum Communications in Germany, but featuring in no small part Britain’s very own Freud Communications and Ketchum….
The Voice v BGT: another limp response from the Beeb
The eventual defeat of The Voice by the Cowell war machine- compounded by that too perfect final story about the crew watching BGT in the gallery- has far more to do with the BBC’s mentality than it does with the show. Once again, the beeb has shown itself to be something of a shrinking violet, and it won’t be able to enter the hardball arena of true showmanship until it learns to man up. The initial success of The Voice was driven by the freshness of the concept- both in its actual content and in the fact that it was…
The Wettest Drought on Record
“The Wettest Drought on Record”: so a dry wit in the back row of a client meeting recently described our current weather situation to me. It’s a spectacularly British situation to be in- a combination of monsoon-esque precipitation levels and poor local planning found nowhere other than Virgil’s ‘edge of the world’. The whole situation illuminates a serious failing in public communications more than anything. Yesterday, I read The Metro on the tube, the front page adorned with a quasi-outraged piece on the arrival of standpipes on streets awash with torrential rain. Public attitude towards the droughts has reached a…
A piece for the Fresh Awards (www.freshawards.co.uk- originally released in their newsletter)
Earlier this week, I became fascinated as a journalist acquaintance of mine- Grace Dent- suffered a much publicised insult at the hands of a young PR executive with a too-happy twitter finger. The guy, in what we can only assume was a moment of alcohol-fuelled ill judgement, as well as somewhat startling boorishness, offered an opinion not worth repeating. In so doing, he sparked a controversy and became the latest misguided individual to make headlines for tweeting or posting something they shouldn’t have in recent weeks. He exemplifies all that is wrong with a generation of PRs raised on hi-speed,…
Pippa- Maybe down but Not Out
A deep collective breath is perhaps needed. Pippa Middleton’s identification with firearms last weel, thanks to the somewhat incautious actions of friend Romain Rabillard, has led many to predict that her fledging career in the public eye is already over. Like her sister, runs the thinking, Middleton’s image relies on propriety- all 3 Middleton siblings have a tidy line in British demureness and easy class (bum jokes aside, that is). Now she’s been seen with a gun-toting aristocrat, speeding down a Paris Rue (or possible Avenue) to what the media must assume was some kind of hedonistic love-fest, we’ll all…
Tupac Rises and Forsythe Shambles Forth- What British Stuntsters Could Learn from Across the Pond
It looks like Tupac Shakur’s back on top for the foreseeable future- it was announced today that his frankly rather terrifying hologram will be going on tour following its first outing at Coachella festival. More than anything else, this is proof of the remarkable power of a great stunt- and is a blow for the great American tradition of stuntsmanship. Just think, Coachella dug up Tupac, Hop Farm dug up Bruce Forsythe. As the megalithic rapper burst onto the stage with a cry of “What the **** is up Coachella? Throw up a m************ finger!”, a cynic could hear the…
What did Trenton Oldfield Mean for Stuntsters?
Back at the start of last week, wherever you turned in mediaworld you found someone sticking their oar in (sorry) to the discussion on wayward idealist Australian Trenton Oldfield and his Pankhurst-esque self-sacrificial boat race stunt. I shan’t bother now to throw in my two cents about the morality of Oldfield’s actions, but I do think that what he has done impacts negatively upon those of us whose business and/or passion it is to grab headlines with acts of disruptive showmanship. The first thing to say is that this was a pretty bland stunt. What I’m more worried about, however,…
Tim Bell: A Surprisingly Erudite Spokesman for an Industry
Allow me to begin, somewhat cautiously, with a disclaimer: I do not agree with many of the political or moral views of Tim Bell, the legendary ex-S&S lobbying supremo who has found himself continually in the spotlight since the emergence of the Bell Pottinger scandal last year. Without going too far into it, I have conducted my business in a manner quite different to the manner in which he has conducted his, and there are reasons for this. He might argue it’s a reason why his business is much bigger However, I could not help but be sincerely impressed by…
Of Pasties and Pussycats: One Weird Week for Politics
What a week for political communications. ‘Pastygate’ is a uniquely 21st century scandal which, regardless of what it reveals about the government’s relationship with the everyday person, certainly says a great deal about the effectiveness of its PR machine. At the same time, whilst Ed Miliband has arguably had a decent week for once, the Labour party has been shaken by a much publicised defeat in Bradford West at the hands of none other than downright weird man-cat George Galloway. First, those pasties. For me, the entire affair was summed up by Paxman’s expression to camera on Wednesday’s Newsnight. The…
The Voice vs BGT: Cowell's Monopoly on Showmanship
However much we hate him, anyone even vaguely interested in the saccharine world of Saturday Night Telly needs to say a quick prayer at the altar of Simon Cowell. Whatever side you came down on, the whole BGT/The Voice battle proved that, as an individual and a brand, he drives the whole weekend entertainment market more or less single handedly. With both sides claiming victory and analysts still picking over the remains, the ratings battle between BGT and The Voice was a close call. While BGT won the peak ratings prize with 11.5m viewers, The Voice managed to sustain figures…
The Lessons of KONY 2012: a Watershed for Charity Awareness Campaigning
The KONY 2012 phenomenon- from breakout viral success to liberal/conservative/far-left battleground to terrifying masturbatory breakdown- is difficult to fully unpick. One thing’s certain, however: it’s had the kind of success which most digital marketers can only dream about. Clearly, this is something unignorable, particularly for those who work within the space of charity awareness campaigning. So what should the digital marketer, charity comms professional or anyone who cares about the passions of the public be taking away from the madness?