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 Deflation of Balloon Boy
The more implausible elements of the ‘Balloon Boy’ story are deflating fast, but still people are hanging on in there, waiting to see what happens when the balloon crashes finally to earth. Deprived of the possibility of an injured or dead child to fulminate over, the press are waiting to see what happens to the child’s father and making scathing noises about his “appalling” hoax. Legal action looms on the horizon and the life of a man desperate for attention looks likely to deflate even more drastically than the balloon he claimed had carried off his son. But why is…
Question Time: The Aftermath
Bearing in mind my post from yesterday, I’m still a little unsure about how the appearance of Nick Griffin on Question Time last night will pan out in the long run. There was too much passion from the panellists, too much shouting down for my tastes. It all seemed too much of a witch-hunt. It doesn’t help that Nick Griffin, ever the opportunist, has plonked himself back at the top of today’s news agenda by claiming that the BBC organised a lynch mob and is demanding that he get one on one debates with Jack Straw, David Cameron and others…
The British Song
A new poem by the Borkowski poet in residence, dedicated to Nick Griffin, leader of the BNP, who will be making his first, controversial appearance on the BBC’s Question Time tonight. For the audio version, scroll to the bottom of the post… I’m Anglo-Saxon, I’m of German extraction. I’m a Celt. My blood’s from the East. I’m Norman, I’m Viking and I came hiking to the British ethnicity feast. Yes, I’m British, British, born of the skittish aftermaths of empires gone. I’m mixed, multiracial and no PR facial can take away from the truth of my song. I’m Muslim, I’m…
Who is Pulling Nick Griffin's PR Strings?
The BBC have, without doubt, handed Nick Griffin and the BNP a potential PR coup by allowing him to appear on Question Time. It is very likely that Griffin will be working desperately hard to avoid belching racist bile, especially as the programme surrounds him – in the interests of the BBC’s “central principle of impartiality” – with Jack Straw (Jewish ancestry and, appropriately, Labour’s Justice secretary), Lady Warsi (Muslim Conservative peer), the critic Bonnie Greer (African American) and token Lib Dem Chris Huhne. Griffin’s PR nous comes hard earned – the BNP’s Director of Publicity, Mark Collett, has had…
Jan Moir and the Power of Twitter
Now the dust has cleared – a little – in the wake of Jan Moir’s Mail article looking at the circumstances surrounding the death of Stephen Gately and the subsequent outpouring of Twitter anger, it’s worth asking what the difference is between Moir’s article, aimed at a certain set of like-minded readers, and the response on Twitter. However ugly and unpalatable Moir’s insinuations were, there will always be celebrities and personalities in the public eye facing deconstruction, valid or not, and there will always be snarky columnists at the Mail. But it would help, if there is to be a…
Skaggs, Blags and Rags: Hoaxes and the Press
If you want proof that stunts are an art form, your best bet is to head down to the Tate Modern’s Pop exhibition and take a long, hard look at the Andy Warhol and Jeff Koons exhibits. Here are two prime examples of early stops at one of the stations of the cross of Consumerism, part of its steady progress to becoming the prime 21st Century religion. And proof is needed that stunts are an art form – they are making something of a comeback at the moment, but the latest examples – the Starsuckers film and Balloon Boy –…
The Ghost Twitterer
Twitter is the place on the net to have fun with publicity, as a brilliant new Halloween stunt, featured in The Sun, proves beyond doubt. “Twitter users will get the chance to communicate with departed showbiz stars this Halloween — in the world’s first online séance,” proclaims the paper. “Tweeters can choose which of their deceased idols they want to talk to, pick a question — then follow the ‘Tweance’ in real time using the social networking site.” The ‘Tweance’ has been cooked up by Angels Fancy Dress, doubtless keen to move some spooky costumes this October. Mundane considerations aside,…
Popularity Politics
Accused of not letting slip any details of policies that would be employed should they form the next Government, the Tories came out in surprisingly brave style yesterday, thanks to George Osborne. He may have the charisma of a financial director of a small engineering firm in Colchester, but Osborne has been the boldest politician on the block this conference season, playing on the Tories’ current popularity to roll out plans for an austere Britain should the Tories come to power. “After a year in which trust in parliament has been rocked to the foundations, we know that politics must…
Brand Immortality & Looting the Dead
Celebrity death is best done young, or youngish, whilst all the characteristics that enamour the public to them remain intact. It’s not great for the celebrity in question, perhaps, but certain brand-builders love a good image that’s been soused in aspic and preserved for an eternity of milking. Take Michael Jackson, whose death has seen the worst elements of him shorn away, with only the adulation left; there’s now a competition to design a fitting memorial for him. And of the entries, there’s not one but three suggestions to build a Jackson-shaped island off Dubai, next to the other man…
The Bra Necessities
The Swedish military certainly have a way with a publicity stunt, if the story that’s surfaced about poorly designed military bras is anything to go by. Or so my churnophrenic state of mind is telling me, as I dig unceasingly for the truth behind the news. Put it this way, if it’s not a PR stunt, somebody is going to receive a serious dressing down. According to reports, “flimsy military brassieres are unable to stand up to the strains imposed when female Swedish troops perform ‘rigorous exercises’”. The bras are “routinely bursting open or even [catch] fire – so forcing…
Strictly Come Politics: Ageism, Ballroom Dancing and the Conference Season
Nick Clegg’s been getting a great deal of attention in the press at the Lib Dem conference this weekend. What I’ve taken away from Clegg’s conference manoeuvres, however, has not been the substance so much as the style in which it is presented. But then it’s been a weekend of style over substance: 30-year-old Alesha Dixon, the winner of Strictly Come Dancing, who was brought in at the expense of the previous judge Arlene Phillips (66) to “give the show some youthful glamour” failed to win the wholehearted approval of the viewing public that the BBC were hoping for in…
The Sleb's Prayer
Our publicist which art in Chinawhite shallowed be our names. Thy quick-fix come, thy stunts be run in Heat as they are on Popbitch. Give us this day our daily big-ups and forgive us our coke deals as we forgive those who report our coke deals to the press. Lead us not into the Priory and deliver us from journalists for thine is the Twitter, the spin-cycle and the story for fifteen months and forever. Amen. Adam Horovitz Written after hearing that a chain of hotels frequented by celebrities, which are to be featured in a reality show, have asked…
Snapshots of the Past
A bumper day for picture stories in the Telegraph. First up, there’s the photo op for the launch of the Guinness Book of Records, which shows that the Barnum model of photo opportunity has never gone away – this picture of He Pingping, the Mongolian man, who, at 2ft 4in, is the world’s shortest man being a direct reference to the one staged by PT Barnum, below. I believe that Barnum would revel in the way that the Guinness Book of Records has legitismised his interest in the biggest, smallest, oldest and oddest – and he’d surely revel even more…
Court Short
The sudden turnaround in fortunes, in less than a week, of Guinness family member Clare Irby, who started the week as a brazen hussy wreaking havoc on an airline and ended up pretty much exonerated, owes as much to the way the freelance agencies pushing stories out of the courts operate on the zingy and exciting knife edge of the truth as it does to a screw-up by the Crown Prosecution Service. The agencies need to sell stories to the papers, so they need the stories to be as lurid as possible. It doesn’t help that audiences love a good…
Gordon Brown and the Jinxed Career
Gordon Brown is jinxed. At the Number 10 reception to mark the second anniversary of the Prime Minister’s Talent and Enterprise Taskforce, Perri Luc Kiely, the frizzy haired 13 year old dancer with Britain’s Got Talent winners Diversity, took a tumble, hurt himself, burst into tears and is now taking top billing in the press coverage. There seems to be no way Brown can escape his political doom if there is to be more coverage of a stunt going wrong than of the actual meaning of the stunt. Brown is reduced by the Press Association release to stating that Kiely…
Churnophrenia: the News Disease
Maybe I’ve reached a midlife crisis of confidence in the news, given how long I’ve worked in PR, but the more I read the papers or listen to the radio these days, the more I find myself considering the underbelly of the stories that I’m hearing and pondering on who exactly delivered a particular story and if they’ve spun it so that it would arrive on the particular day knowing what effect it might have on the world. Actually, I think it’s more than that – it may be becoming an illness. I may be developing Churnophrenia, a disease that…
The Eccentric Orchestra of LA
My old friend, the maverick director Tony Kaye, best known for American History X and a slew of fine music videos for Johnny Cash and the Red Hot Chili Peppers amongst others, is looking to bring the strange and unusual back into music by holding an open audition in Los Angeles for any musician this weekend. There are only two provisos for the musicians – they must be proficient with an instrument or with digital musical technology and they must be eccentric, or “excentric” as the press release puts it. Tony feels “that the time has come for a band…
Exploding with Energy Drinks
Lucozade is going through PR hell at the moment, in the wake of lurid headlines such as “The Lucozade Bombers” referring to the thwarted plot to blow up seven planes with bombs concealed inside bottles of the energy drink. The Guardian asked me what I though that Lucozade would be doing about it, in an article published today. “Smaller brands might secretly welcome the association or at least make an irreverent joke about it, reckons Borkowski. ‘You can see Mock The Week having great fun with it but it’s too uncomfortable for the parent company. The problem is these brands…
All the President's (Short) Men
What is Nicolas Sarkozy’s problem with his height? He can’t seem to go a week without turning up in the press reportedly wearing a pair of stacked heels and standing on tiptoe in an effort to make himself feel taller – be it next to Barack Obama or factory workers in Normandy. His latest stunt, being widely reported on in the press at the moment, is the photo opportunity he took at a Normandy factory last Thursday, in which the workers he was photographed with were all shorter than he was. Sarkozy stands at either 5’5” or 5’6”, depending on…
Great Apes! The Fame Formula on X Factor
Some of the contestants in the X Factor, wanting to learn a thing or two about the publicity tricks of the past to help get them through the tough new auditions system, (where they have to face not only the barbed comments of Simon Cowell and co, but the baying of a full-throttle audience out for carefully-packaged blood) have turned to the Fame Formula for ideas, it seems, as this picture from the ITV website proves. A hug from Danni and Simon may be all very well, but it seems that The Fame Formula is the hardened fame seeker’s reference…