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.
The Early Days of Hacking
In a time when dinosaurs ruled the earth, or so it would seem to anyone born after 1989, there was a big TV name called Michael Elphick. He had a hit show, attracting millions of viewers. He’d been a party animal in his time and, for some reason, a Sunday taboid editor decided to take him down a notch. Elphick drafted me in to try and wrangle the gorilla. This was a time when mobile phones were nothing more than a twinkle in the eye of the Star Trek props department and folk depended on land lines. A time when…
News of the Screwed
Yesterday was a momentous day for British journalism and, of course, the PR industry. The world’s biggest English speaking Sunday tabloid newspaper is dead. Rupert Murdoch’s action to try and halt the hurricane sweeping through his empire by taking a Butcher’s cleaver to his own corporate flesh was tactical filicide. It seems clear from the events of recent days, especially the confusion and contradictory messages from the News International camp, that the company was struggling to thwart the meltdown of the brand and counter the opprobrium. The move to close the paper, and thereby protect the brand, took my breath…
Wedding Stunts with Stories
We live in an age where we’re increasingly concerned with the methodology of publicity rather than its veracity; from celebrities Cheryl and Simon, to government bodies, start up fashion brands and particularly charitable causes everyone gets involved in publicity stunts. Stunts are the red cells flowing at blistering speed through media arteries, nourishing the media agenda off- and online. They are the fastest means to create indelible brand infamy. Some of them are put under the microscope and picked apart by media cynics, myself included, but the greatest stunts are those which nobody spots as stunts. I should know, I…
The Resurrection of MySpace?
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation bought MySpace in 2005 for $580m. Yesterday it sold to an online ad company for around $35m. Few tears will be shed for Rupert’s $545m loss. Did anyone know the true value of MySpace? More pertinently, does anyone recall the MySpace hype? Current PR hot air suggests that other media darlings will crash and burn. The huge corporate guerrillas fail to see true value because they do not understand that many of the channels actually grow, flourish and survive on their own authenticity. So often, many pay top dollar for hype and PR muscle to inflate…
Brand Glastonbury: the survival of the muddiest
“The philosophy behind much advertising is based on the old observation that every man is really two men – the man he is and the man he wants to be.” William Feather I’m off to wade in the ever-welcoming Somerset mud. Yes, it’s work not pleasure, especially considering the Glastonbury Festival regularly descends into a replica of Passchendaele’s swampy goo. I’ve always struggled to understand the risks that passionate music fans take when buying their tickets, knowing the chances are high that the heavens will deliver rain. Why? I guess partly it’s hope. If you want to see hell, you…
Derren Brown: The Art of Understanding
I admire two people. One is dead and one alive. The dead one is the great American showman PT Barnum. He is my muse. Why? Discovering his legacy influenced my thinking on the power of the crowd enormously. Barnum’s majestic stunts were works of genius – they went viral long, long before that word sneaked into modern parlance. He was so influential that people tried to attribute quotes to him that denigrated his approach. He never said: “There’s a sucker born every minute” but he did say: “Every crowd has a silver lining.” Way back in 2003 I scribbled a…
How to Survive in Media Limbo
In the wake of Cheryl Cole’s turbulent relationship with the media since her sacking from the American X Factor, here are some tips, inspired by Andy Green, that might help her through any other media difficulties that may come her way in future. Cheryl’s recent sacking is an opportunity to re-evaluate her identity and learn valuable lessons in creativity. We all have to learn to deal with rejection and the word ‘No’. 1. Focus on who you are and why you’ve been successful. A strong identity and deep roots in what made you successful in the first place will help…
Libya: exploiting the vulnerable
News from Libya this morning suggests a new low in the country’s civil war. An ICC report accuses government forces of using rape as a weapon. It’s a wretched fact that women become even more vulnerable during such malevolent hostilities. According to a recent Oxfam report, as many as 14 women are raped every day in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, almost half of them in broad daylight and more than half in their own homes. A brutal civil war centred on a conflict over minerals that are used in our mobile phones. The rebels and the government troops…
Publicity Stunt? What Publicity Stunt?
The great Ronan Parke caper seemed to just fizzle out yesterday. Pre- the Britain’s Got Talent final, it seemed the final hype was upstaged by a rogue blogger. The disgruntled record exec-come-whistleblower touched a raw nerve with his well-written conspiracy theory suggesting that Britain’s wannabe Beiber had actually been ruthlessly groomed by the Dark Lord, Cowell. This creative provoked the TV mob to launch a complaint to the Kensington and Chelsea rozzers. The Saturday final audience watched a wounded Cowell’s emotional appeal for the nation’s trust. Heaven forbid that an entertainment mogul would consider manipulating the career of a starlet!…
The Ego Has Landed
Britain’s Got Talent has rolled around again and again the nation is gripped. Out with the old and in with the new. It’s been this way for a while. Remember, it’s not five minutes since the X Factor was all anyone could talk about, but that’s seeped away into the mists of time as BGT conquers the attention spans of the nation. Like a Chinese meal, it is all you can taste and think about, but when it’s finished it’s forgotten and all you want is the next fix of foodstuff. There’s news, there’s excitement, there’s hyperbole scattered all over…
How to manage a celebrity's reputation
I have known Keith Schilling for many years; he’s a highly able human being. On many occasions I’ve worked alongside some brilliant folk in his firm and have regularly taken part in their brilliant, thought-provoking, well attended seminars. In the last few days, Keith has been pictured in many broadsheet newspapers as journalists debate and chew over Schilling’s tactics and, of course, fees. It’s in their nature to feed on these events, but make no mistake, he’s a formidable operator.
The revolution in celebrity
It’s an unimaginable horror to be in the middle of an awful tabloid scandal, your human frailty laid bare. Yes dear reader – I’ve been there when it’s happened. It’s a dark, sad, dank and lonely space. Watching and being with the subject is not the most edifying part of my job, witnessing a tsunami of emotions hitting from all directions as the story is outed. The humiliation, the public outrage, everyone diving in to offer an opinion. The sniggers the jokes, then the realisation that ‘I’ve lost everyone. Will my sponsors disappear? What an end to my career! Please…
Twitter: mightier than the sword?
A wry smile crossed my lips when I heard the news that lawyers have applied for a court order to force Twitter to hand over the person behind the whistleblower account. It’s taken one anonymous tweeter to spectacularly out the famous footballer hiding behind his privacy injunction and, in a heartbeat, neuter the legal profession. Now blood lusting lawyers crave a sacrifice: a public crucifixion to warn others not to engage in mass collaboration with total strangers on the web. I have always believed there has been a calculus of public vs. private interest, but this week has proved that…
More Schwarznegger Shock Revelations!
It’s impossible to escape the stories spilling out everywhere about Arnold Schwarzenegger’s love child – but did you know about the Sperminator’s long-lost half brother? Neither did I, but then I saw the clip below – a clip from Russian TV featuring a terrible mime from a man who looked vaguely familiar. I did a little research, called in a few favours from Polish relatives who might have seen the footage at the time, and it turns out to be Arnie’s older half brother, Ernst, who died in mysterious circumstances in 1974. This is the only surviving footage of what…
Trial by Twitter
Continuing the debate on the challenges that the PR industries face in the digital age, the Dominique Strauss-Kahn affair underlines some of the issues that I opened for discussion last week. It’s a hot topic, particularly as the story has broken at a time when many companies are becoming less and less tolerant of any sexual misconduct by their senior executives. A string of high-profile companies have shed their bosses in recent years over such issues. It’s a new and convenient way to ‘get rid’. Strauss Kahn is being held in New York, facing allegations of sexual assault. Should we…
Careful what you wish for in the new communications age
According to Private Eye, Times media correspondent Patrick Foster was sacked after being earwigged by the BBC’s head of Press during a call in which he made a rather inappropriate comment to Caroline Thomson, the BBC’s chief operating officer. Paul Mylrea, head of press at the Beeb, swiftly raced off a letter of complaint to the Times and Foster has apparently been sacked. Are we really operating in such a venomous and cut-throat arena these days? Are the new generation of PRs set to completely and unquestioningly inherit the methodology of the Alistair Campbell school of PR – to seek…
Remembering the Legends of Journalism
My favourite website of the moment remembers a long forgotten media age and celebrates the memory of a breed of journalism that seems to have vanished. The website is thegentlemenranters.com and it features splendid stories and reminiscences about such legends as the late Peter Batt and Leo Clancy, both of whom died recently.
Super-Injunctions and Changing the Way We Think
This is the modern age, the age of the super-injunction, the age when celebrities want to keep their dirty laundry in bomb- and journalist-proof cages so that not even the slightest whiff of scandal can escape. Of course, it’s just not as easy as that, as the furore over someone posting information on Twitter about people who have allegedly taken out super-injunctions proves. My instinct suggests that the poster is simply a nobody seeking a rather risky path to fame; but this does not alter the fact that technology changes at an exponentially faster rate than humanity’s baser instincts, as…
The Ghosts of Business Nightmares Past
I’ll be appearing on BBC2 next week, as one of the interviewees in three part series Business Nightmares, with Evan Davis. I’ll be appearing in all three episodes, which cover product design and manufacture, marketing and PR and strategy and deals, discussing stories such as Sunny Delight, Hoover free flights, Ratner, Mini, New Coke and Cadbury Get Active. The series has been made in conjunction with the Open University and focusses not just on what happened, but why it happened. Other business people speaking include: Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson, entrepreneur and inventor Sir James Dyson, Interbrand chairman Rita Clifton,…
Changing Narratives and the Death of Osama Bin Laden
The ever-changing narratives surrounding the ritualistic slaying of Osama Bin Laden has spewed up a slew of conundrums. It should also teach publicists valuable lessons about the pitfalls of a contemporary story engine, brand messaging turned cariacature and the conditions of the modern news mill. Instinctively, a good publicist understands how to engineer a simple brand story. This propels both new and traditional media forward, generating the power of positive word of mouth. If the elevator pitch is too complex, return to the drawing board. These past principles have been reframed by the lustful media’s desire to break a story….