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.
Looking For the Real Mad Men
I hope you’ll forgive me a brief bask in the news that The Fame Formula has crept back up the Amazon charts and is currently at number 4 in the Film and Performing Arts Bestseller list, as well as moving slowly back into the running in the overall chart. It certainly seems like the Fame Formula is finding a life of its own again – I’ve recently received a number of emails and tweets from people who like the book. I’m humbled by their praise – and intrigued by one tweet that insists that the book has more to say…
The Cadburys Takeover: Dairy Milking?
Over the years, my company has worked with a great many heritage brands – from Horlicks to Gordon’s Gin, Hovis, Selfridges, R White’s Lemonade and of course Wispa. I understand, as a consequence, that these sorts of brands – usually on the back of iconic advertising campaigns and careful PR that pushes all the least sickly nostalgia buttons – connect with the public deeply, right in the heart.
Russkat: The New Brangelina?
The Independent requested my opinion on the hotting up of the Russell Brand and Katy Perry romance – and more particularly the way they are being aggressively pushed into a Brangelina-shaped hole. Or should that be RussKat, as the Independent puts it. To read more, click here…
PR Spam: The New Chlamydia?
Is PR spam the new chlamydia? Certainly it’s being fulminated about an awful lot as the latest social disease that may have infected us all, although we’re too often too ashamed to check out the symptoms.
The Ross Ultimatum
Speculation surrounds the departure of Jonathan Ross from the BBC after 13 years – did he jump or was he pushed?
The Fame Formula On the Record
I’ve had a dose of New Year cheer after yesterday’s blog – I’ve just learned that the episode of Eric Schwartzman’s wonderful weekly podcast On the Record, covering all the latest issues in the world of PR, in which I discussed The Fame Formula, is the second most popular download of last year. Most cheering of all, the interview was recorded in August 2008! If you never heard the podcast, it’s still available by clicking here. It’s also well worth subscribing to the On the Record podcast – there’s always something interesting to listen to…
Same Old New Old Year
I spent a little of last night, as the festive season faded and a whole new year and the return to work hove into view, watching the latest iteration of Celebrity Big Brother wipe it’s arse across my TV screen. As the usual array of desperate people, half-arsed film heroes and one hit blips on the music radar began to settle into the Big Brother house, in much the same fashion as their predecessors had last year, I got to thinking – is 2010 going to be any different from 2009? Will we have ANYTHING new in the coming months,…
Rage, machines and hopes for 2010
Joe McElderry has lost out to Rage Against the Machine – it seems that a significant proportion of the British record-buying public really have turned on Simon Cowell and given him a festive slap under the miseltoe. It’s an upset, but its significance lies in what the power of the Internet might achieve next. Motivational balladry versus an old, shouty agit pop record should cause a few smiles and quite a few more spluttering grannies in front of Top of the Pops on Christmas morning, but it won’t change the world. But the methods to get said agit pop record…
Raging and plotting against the machine
It’s been interesting to be following pre-Christmas sales on the internet for the last three or four days, for two reasons. One reason is personal – my book, The Fame Formula, has leapt up the Amazon sales chart by several thousand places in the last three days. The other reason is that I’ve been watching Rage Against the Machine’s 17 year old track, Killing in the Name Of, consistently outselling the X Factor winner’s song – an instantly forgettable motivational ballad from the Hannah Montana movie – thanks to the Facebook campaign set up by a couple bored with the…
Clinton, Copenhagen, Afghanistan, Suppression and the X Factor
The suppression of information takes many guises, I’m beginning to realise. Many guises, but at the heart, the old ways of doing things still rule. Someone pulls strings and the neck of the bag tightens. Take, for a start, Hillary’s Secret War, a book detailing the ways in which a rightwing think-tank’s output on the internet was allegedly suppressed by Hillary Clinton during the Clinton regime, which has just been brought to my attention. According to the author, a Richard Poe, Clinton protected her husband’s regime rigorously. “Hillary’s attack machine bullied,” he writes, “blackmailed, terrorized, and intimidated every serious investigator,…
Why Tiger Woods PR disaster could scare brands off sports stars for good
Another piece, by me, on the Tiger Woods brand disintegration has appeared in Guardian Online’s Media section. It looks at the way that sports endorsement has been shifting away from volatile and risky sports stars, and at where the big money is settling in the aftermath of the Tiger Woods PR meltdown. “Let’s get one thing straight: Tiger’s situation is no ordinary brand collapse. This is the high watermark for individual brand disintegration. It’s not of massive media interest just because of the girls; the attendant hoo-ha surrounding Tiger’s spectacular brand disintegration has been heightened to such an extraordinary degree…
The Sleb's Prayer and The Exterminating Factor
Have you overdosed on the X Factor? Are the opinions of the judges getting you down? Have you felt like venting your feelings about the loss of your favourite contestant? Did Danyl’s departure in the semi-finals really get your goat? Did Lucie losing out to Jedward rile you to the point of despair? Or are you simply sick of the whole ‘poptastic’ shebang? If the answer to any of these questions is “YES”, Borkowski has a couple of tasty slices of satirical goodness to ease your rage, two fine diversions from a toxic weekend of TV carnage. In a burst…
Risking the Tiger Woods Economy
I was asked to comment on the fallout from Tiger Woods’s bad week in the press by the Guardian last week – the resulting article appears in today’s Media section and online under the headline In Need of a Tigerish Attorney. I took a critical look at the way he and his lawyer, Mark NeJame, are handling the story. Here’s an excerpt: “Tiger Woods’s nasty bump on the head after his car’s tussle with a fire hydrant has rendered the golfer mostly speechless. It’s all very well that he’s admitted “transgressions” and muttered an apology, but at the heart of…
Tiger Not Yet Out of the Woods
I was asked by the Times what could save Tiger Woods’ reputation in the wake of the revelations that he has, as he put it in his guarded press release the other day, “transgressed”. I told them that the next step for Woods could be a public display of contrition, perhaps in a television interview. He certainly needs to let people in behind the veneer of perfection and let the public – and the press – see that he is human after all. It worked for David Beckham – his brand was always built on his home life as well…
A Day in the Life of Tony Kaye in a Nissan Cube – the movie!
Here are two brilliant three minute films of highlights from last Friday’s adventures through London with Tony Kaye in a fleet of Nissan Cubes. Everything was filmed on Flip HD cameras. Read the blogs, linked here, for more information.
Tony Kaye's Cube-top Concert
A perfect close to the day, before zooming off to the Cube Store in Brick Lane; Tony Kaye gives a Cube-top show atop a Nissan Cube outside the Tate. Cue startled passers-by, unfazed cabbies, bewildered Big Issue sellers and a few arched eyebrows. In the Nissan Cube, an interesting conversation ensues about how to walk the line between art and commerce. Bob Dylan knows how to do it, according to Tony, but Lennon stepped too far towards art and politics for comfort. Also intriguing was the discussion about Marlon Brando’s acting lessons at Michael Jackson’s Neverland ranch. There’s recordings of…
Installed at Tate Britain
From the comfort of a Nissan Cube straight to anarchy at Tate Britain! Here are the photos of Tony Kaye installing himself at the gallery that the Tate’s wardens of policy were loath to allow! Plus one message of hope at the entrance to the Tate…
On the way to Tate Britain
Kabbalah, Tony claims, has given him the technology of creativity. “The Kabbalah has a very healthy attitude towards sex – it’s an important thing!” Now we’re on the way to Tate Britain in the Nissan Cube. The Tate is a mystical place for Tony. He took a homeless man called Roger off the street and installed him there. The first place of Roger’s installation was at the Saatchi gallery – he was thrown out of there so Tony housed him at Tate Britain. People came looking for him, were intrigued by the idea – and at times outraged. A homeless…
Stage invasion at the NFT
Tony pretty much lived at the NFT in the early 80s. “This was my film school! I’d spend all day here – it was fantastic. It took me a ling time to understand the structure of a film. He was weaned on Hollywood biblical epics, so the experimental films were a steep, exciting learning curve We skate into NFT screen 1, unsettling the woman who’s just about to open it for a screening. Everything seems bigger in memory, according to Tony as he stands on the stage, watched by bewildered members of a gathering film audience. This memory of hugeness…