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.
Unshredding Fred and Gordon Brown
I was on the Today programme at 8.40 this morning, with Phil Hall from PHA Media, discussing Simon Lewis’s new role as director of communications for Gordon Brown and how he might turn Brown’s premiership around. A challenging role, as Phil and I agreed, especially given that he has to follow in the footsteps of Tony Blair’s cabal of effortless communicators. Gordon Brown, we suggested, needs Simon Lewis to create a compelling narrative, pushing Brown into a position of leadership rather than the reactive PM we’ve seen in the press. He needs to communicate key policies. The same needs to…
Mark on Fame on Austrian Radio
I gave an interview for Austrian radio last week on the nature of fame in the 21st Century. The podcast is available now but I am posting up the extract of my interview on this site. Click here to listen to my comments on Fame on Austrian Radio or, to hear the full podcast, click here.
Taking the Flack: Prince Harry and the Royal Press Machine
The papers have been full of Prince Harry’s new girlfriend Caroline Flack, the presenter of Gladiators and, it has become clear, a full throttle Alpha Female and a hedonist of the first order. But now The Sun has announced that Harry’s dumped Flack because he misses Chelsy Davy, quoting him – through a friend – as saying: “I lost the best thing that ever happened to me and I’m paying for it.” I wonder if this is the true voice of the Prince, who has proved time and again that you can’t keep a young, rich and eligible man from…
Cristiano Ronaldo and Paris Hilton: was it a stunt?
Could the tabloid-friendly sight of Cristiano Ronaldo and Paris Hilton in a Los Angeles nightclub the night before the footballer’s Real Madrid deal was confirmed be a coincidence? Originally published on the Guardian website Call me a cynical old publicist but I have to admit that I am hardly surprised to see Cristiano Ronaldo spread across the tabloids today with Paris Hilton tucked under his arm at a club in Los Angeles. It’s a marriage made in franchise heaven – the world’s most expensive footballer and the headline-grabbing socialite together on the eve of Ronaldo’s ascension to the giddy heights of football…
Ae fond fizz from Coca-Cola
ROBERT Burns has become the first real person to feature on a Coca-Cola bottle. The special edition reproduces the image of Scotland’s national poet between the antlers of a stag to mark Homecoming Scotland 2009, in a colourful red, white and gold tribute. Although an image of Santa Claus has previously appeared on a bottle of Coke, it is the first time the company has used the image of a historical figure on a bottle. In another marketing milestone it is the first time Coca-Cola has dedicated a special edition to a nation. http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/Ae-fond-fizz-from-CocaCola.5340942.jp
Sacha Baron Cohen: a PR person's dreamBuzz up!
It is already one of the most eagerly anticipated films of the year, but there are few promotional posters on display and the trailers have yet to be screened. Bruno, which stars Sacha Baron Cohen as his latest alter ego, a gay Austrian fashion presenter, has redefined the way films are marketed, masterminding a series of publicity stunts that culminated in Sunday’s appearance at the MTV Music Awards. Mark Borkowski, founder of Borkowski PR, described Baron Cohen as “a PR person’s dream”. He said: “It is a clever strategy because the film world is a marketplace of ideas, and the…
Boyle-ing Point: The Caustic Nature of Fame
There’s not that much of a gap between Phineas Taylor Barnum, grandmaster of the freak show, and Simon Cowell. Both Barnum and Cowell are exemplars of transmuting showbiz into mega-biz gold. The difference is that we look back now, 150 years later, and judge the freakshows that made Barnum’s name as exploitative and degrading. I wonder how we will judge Britain’s Got Talent in 30 years time? There is no doubt that Barnum would have loved Britain’s Got Talent – a cost-effective format that gathers a collection of strange and strangely determined people into its fold and pushes their saleability,…
Mark on Fame on Film
A film, by Aaron Stone, featuring Mark Borkowski instructing a couple of wannabe celebrities on the perils of fame.
Name Changes, Wispa and More
An article in today’s Independent on brand name changes, comebacks and stunts, mentioning the Borkowski Wispa campaign and quoting me from a blog, originally published here. “We should really have learned from the past. Cadbury started making Wispa bars again two years ago after an online campaign by chocoholics supposedly nostalgic about their 1980s heyday. The PR guru Mark Borkowski behind the ‘story’ denies it was a stunt. (In a series of blogs about the awards his campaign won, he wrote: ‘We designed a press campaign informed by the amount of online pressure groups that had been running for over…
Hype, Glory and a Question of Talent in Hay
I’m still recovering from a sold out Hay Festival appearance and the blazing sun. I’d forgotten how wonderful the Festival can be when the weather’s good! The discussion, Hype and Glory, with the Guardian’s Marina Hyde and our excellent chair, Paul Blezard, was wide ranging and got an excellent response from the audience. Marina wanted to reclaim the world from celebrities and wanted real people with real talent to get recognition. Why should Angelina Jolie be the face of the UN when there are committed and talented people out there who, though less glamorous, do all the hard and amazing…
Neal's Yard: You Ask They Sulk
Neal’s Yard have committed a grave PR error by backing out of the Guardian’s You Ask They Answer debate on homeopathic treatments and going into hiding. Twitter has been in a twirl about it all morning. In an age when there is a need for transparency in all things, Neal’s Yard have to fight to support their brand – and part of that fight is in online debates with informed, and often critical, consumers. If they can’t deal with the fact that people demand a conversation, the Neal’s Yard brand risks going further into meltdown than it has already; just…
Griffin & Bowers: Publicity Predators
What do ex-pop star Dane Bowers and the BNP leader, Nick Griffin, have in common? They’re both publicity predators, prowling at the fringes of big news and ready to leap in and attach their teeth into the rump of a story that will get them attention. Griffin is all over the news at the moment, attaching himself to the coat tails of the BNP’s London Assembly member Richard Barnbrook, who was invited to Buckingham Palace for a garden party and sought to bring Griffin as his significant other to the party. But Griffin, in true publicity predator style, has now…
Politics: The only way is up
We asked a panel of experts how they would solve Parliament’s problems If you were to pick out one MP’s claim as highlighting the worst excess, which would it be and why? Sir Peter Viggers and his duck house. It’s not the amount of money that causes concern, but the underlying cast of mind. There is a rough parallel with tax avoidance (legal) versus tax evasion (illegal). “Flipping” homes comes into the avoidance category. The rules were daft to allow this. Conservative MPs who claimed for duck houses and moat-cleaning were in evasion territory. Are we in danger of going…
The Ongoing Expenses Scandal and What to do About it
Day fifteen of the Telegraph’s ongoing revelations about MP’s expenses rumbles into view with no end in sight and I’ve just recorded a piece for the Trevor Macdonald show on the affair – another in a long list of opinions given to the media. It may seem easy for a PR pundit to hand out opinion from on high, but this is fundamentally a PR issue – it has been created by a poor understanding of PR on the part of MPs and will be solved by good, transparent PR. The dispiriting thing is that there are MPs out there…
MPs expenses: how can Parliament detoxify its brand?
The scandal surrounding MPs expenses has angered the voting public. So how can confidence in Parliament be restored? Here, we asked advertising gurus, branding experts and cool-headed commentators for tips on how MPs can pick up the pieces. Max Clifford, publicist “I have never known a time when the public are so utterly disgusted by politicians full stop. It’s frightening. And it goes right across the board, even those who haven’t been exposed have been tarnished. Perhaps the most damning thing, for me, is the fact that they fought so hard to stop the information coming out. Clearly they knew…
Cannes Do Publicity
The frenzy of moviedom and publicity that is the Cannes Film Festival is upon us again. Publicity stunts play an enormous part in the festival, however much the BBC’s Victoria Lindrea may protest that this year “really is all about the films“. Certainly there’s a great selection of serious filmmakers showing at this year’s festival, but if “organisers are casting off celebrity gimmicks in favour of a vintage line-up of classic filmmakers” this year, as Lindrea asserts, I’m certain that determined stuntsters and publicists will creep up and surprise us from nowhere – publicity stunts at Cannes, as I told…
The Art of Saying Sorry
I was asked by the Guardian to comment on the new trend in contrite adverts, from the Marks & Sparks ‘We Boobed’ campaign to the Evening Standard’s resetting of standards adverts. “Over the years the public have become sick and tired of being ripped off and misled and as a result we are now in an age of brand transparency,” I told them. “Trust has gone – look at the government and banks. Where we are now, brands have to admit their mistakes.” To read the full article, click here.
Borkowski on The Susan Boyle Phenomenon
I was asked to comment in a dissection of the Susan Boyle phenomenon by Al Jazeera’s The Listening Post a couple of weeks ago – here’s the video…
Is this the greatest PR stunt ever?
Global media flocked to the island Some stories are as much about public relations as they are news. This week marked the culmination of one of the greatest examples, which has left the PR industry gasping in admiration, says Ian Hall. In a blaze of publicity, more than a thousand media organisations around the world this week reported that the job of “caretaker” of Hamilton Island in Australia had been given to a 34-year-old ostrich-rider from Hampshire, Ben Southall. Given that part of a PR executive’s job is to sell a product without paying for advertising space, then Tourism Queensland’s…
Mark Borkowski and Max Clifford: The Video
Here is the webcast of the head to head between Max Clifford and myself at the London College of Communications last Tuesday, in nine handy bite-sized chunks. Apologies to anyone who logged in to Ustream in the hope of seeing the debate streamed live – Ustream crashed and prevented us from going ahead. Part One Part Two: Andrew reveals his knowledge of football, and Max discusses the difference between ’stars’ and ‘celebrities’ Part Three: Mark begins with an attack on new agents, who lack in skill and who profit by peddling hope. Part Four: Are reality shows good or bad?…