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.
Finding Fame in Hollywood
I was intrigued to read in yesterday’s Independent about the splash Paul Duddridge is making in Hollywood. He’s moved from being an agent for comedians based in Soho to becoming a fame guru in Los Angeles in two years and seems to be making a good fist of getting numbers of the countless acting hopefuls who litter the staff rosters of LA bars and restaurants to come to his seminars in the hope that they, too, will be able to make Hollywood work for them. The promise he offers is to make them famous in 40 days, if they follow…
Richard and Judy to bring down curtain on 20-year partnership to tackle solo projects
Chat show couple Richard and Judy are considering bringing the curtain down on their TV partnership. Richard Madeley said he was looking at some “tantalising” solo opportunities after believing there is now little left for them to do together as broadcasters. Speaking to Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs show, he said: “I think we both feel we have done pretty much all we can do as a partnership in terms of the talk shows, but I think probably we both feel the need to diversify. http://www.herald.ie/entertainment/tv-radio/richard-and-judy–to-bring-down-curtain-on-20year-partnership-to-tackle-solo-projects-1665921.html
Digital Missionaries and the Vatican
So, an über-Cardinal in Rome feels that it’s time for a generation to detox from technology. Forget fasting for lent, the Pope’s publicist has floated a story that we all need to curb our technology obsession and digital addiction. “Thou shalt not text or play games for lent” is the missive from the Vatican. Transformational storytelling it’s not. I think the Supreme Being will be pulling cosmic hairs out of his signature big white beard with frustration. This sort of reactionary fundamentalism is plain silly. The Catholic Church is missing a trick. They need to embrace the myriad of platforms…
Goodwin the scapegoat is godsend for government
The government clearly does need people to focus attention away from them, writes Mark Borkowski. If they can, in some way, have a witch-hunt, not just on Fred Goodwin but other members of the banking community who are also sitting on pretty hefty pensions, that clearly helps. We all want a scapegoat. Unfortunately, scapegoats turn out to be just a passing focus of attention. In these situations, Sir Fred needs a meaningful dialogue and he needs to find some media friends. But nobody in the media is going to befriend this person because he is going to be vilified. He…
We'll change the law to strip Sir Fred of his pension, vows Harman
Pressure on Sir Fred Goodwin to surrender a substantial proportion of his £693,000 annual pension intensified yesterday when Labour’s deputy leader signalled that the government was prepared to change the law to recover the cash. Harriet Harman said the former Royal Bank of Scotland chief executive had received “money for nothing” when he quit the bank last October and vowed: “The government will take action.” The scale of Sir Fred’s pension pot emerged last week when RBS announced the biggest loss in UK corporate history, having amassed debts of £24.1 billion for 2008. http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/scotland/We39ll-change-the-law-to.5027331.jp
Critics of Max Clifford fail to comprehend his talents
The celebrities he manufactures may come and go but the silver fox remains centre stage, marvels fellow PR Mark Borkowski Monday, 2 March 2009 Red top ringmaster: Max Clifford speaks to the media after the recent wedding of his client Jade Goody to Jack Tweed in Essex Put any misgivings about Jade Goody’s Barnumesque three-ring circus sideshow to one side for a moment. Instead, focus on the silver fox who has been the undisputed ringmaster of recent events in her life: Max Clifford. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/advertising/critics-of-max-clifford-fail-to-comprehend-his-talents-1634968.html
Howard Zieff and Learning from the Past
I heard today that Howard Zieff had died – a name I’d not really encountered before, despite the fact that he’d directed a few breezy comedies like Private Benjamin, starring Goldie Hawn – but the obituaries made me sit up and take notice. It turns out that, when he started out in advertising, he was very much in the Jim Moran mold; a man who used wit to get people talking and whose campaigns kick-started the more realistic advertising and promotion of brands that has become so commonplace and important to modern advertising and PR. Raised in the Bronx, Zieff’s…
Max Clifford: Media Ringmaster
Put any misgivings about Jade Goody’s Barnumesque three-ring Circus sideshow to one side for moment. Instead, focus on the silver fox who has been the undisputed ringmaster of recent events in her life; Max Clifford. He may not be attired in a garish ring suit, but Max Clifford is clearly visible as the man, centre stage, pulling the financial strings. This is not written as a genuflection to the cult of Clifford, more as an explanation of the reality; he is doing something more than a mere job – he is reacting to the peccadilloes of the age. Clearly it…
David Blaine: Word of Mouth Showman Supreme
A breakfast meeting with David Blaine last week was a very pleasing and revelatory experience; it’s good to sit and talk with someone who really, really gets true showmanship, spectacle, creativity, word of mouth and viral publicity and who has encountered many of the same things I’ve encountered, even the Russian circus act with a coat of living minks. Blaine is a great, great grandson of Barnum and has built his persona on the Barnum and Houdini models, always connecting with his audience and constantly astonishing them. Most importantly, he is always sure that they are talking about him. He…
Not Rocking the BRITS
Where have all the rebellious heroes of British music gone? If the Brit Awards are anything to go by, there is pretty much no such animal anymore, just a parade of no-marks who are too wary of upsetting Mastercard, the sponsors, and the TV executives to do anything interesting. The fact that the inoffensive Welsh songstress Duffy, a fine singer if you like your music to hark back to a supposedly innocent era where everyone was happy and no one rocked the boat, has been crowned the overall winner of this year’s Brits merely reinforces the corporate sheen of the…
Jade Goody and the Art of Dying
“Dying is an art,” wrote Sylvia Plath, in her poem Lady Lazarus, and the very public final weeks of Jade Goody are reinforcing Plath’s point remarkably well. Jade Goody has moved on from the unthinking, mouthy persona that brought her to national attention with a sudden aplomb, becoming, in her need to make a better life for the two children she will be leaving behind in the wake of her terminal cervical cancer, an iconic figure whose death will mark the end of an era of celebrity in Britain. There are notes of disgust registering around the country that she’s…
Wellcome Back: The Art of Stunt Resurrection
Reading about the Wellcome Collection’s stunt to promote research into the science of the freak show, featuring contortionist Delia du Sol, in the Evening Standard yesterday, I was reminded how, in the dark days of the recession before the big one, I met an extraordinary contortionist called Hugo Zamoratte. Zamoratte was an Argentina exile who was able to stuff himself into bottles; he had discovered a natural talent for dislocating his joints after he accidentally dislocated his arm in the Argentinian National Guard. After 20 years of practicing his art in South America, training in yoga and gymnastics all the while,…
Dating for the Terminally Ill
Is there any need to reinvent the dating agency? It seems that there is in America, where a company have audaciously taken the process to its extreme, as a press release announcing the launch of Till-Death-Do-Us-Part.com, “The World’s First Dating Service for the Terminally Ill” proves. Till-Death-Do-Us-Part.com claims to be “designed to cut through the superficiality and embrace issues we think are most meaningful – the desire and need for understanding, compassion, empathy and comfort between human beings” but it also offers to help terminally ill people to find others like them, who don’t mind they’re dying, to have sex…
Noel's HQ and the Sneering Press Officer
It’s good to see that my client Noel Edmonds’ groundbreaking new show on Sky One, Noel’s HQ, is having some effect. This week, the programme, which aims to inspire people to acts of kindness and help transform lives, tackled the case of Joe Townsend, a 20-year-old veteran of the campaign in Afghanistan. Townsend lost both his legs to a landmine and, to help him rehabilitate and get his life back on track, his grandfather offered to build a specially adapted bungalow on his own land in Sussex. They chose a spot that could not be seen from the road and…
Google Latitude versus the Need for Privacy
In a world rife with the ability to keep an eye on where we are, with posters that are embedded with cameras that register how many people look at the poster for more than ten seconds and GPS phones that can traced their owners to within a yard or so, why is that that complaints are so few and far between? Alright, there are the net conspiracies about social networking brands and how they are allegedly linked to information-gathering for the NSA (that’s the USA’s National Security Agency of course, not the UK’s National Sheep Association) but this is not…
Carol Thatcher versus the BBC
The BBC are coming under fire again, this time for the sacking of Carol Thatcher, who, according to The Scotsman, “emerged last night as an unlikely rallying point for freedom of speech, after … referring to a tennis player as a ‘golliwog’.” “… a growing list of politicians, lawyers and media experts attacked the BBC,” continues The Scotsman, “accusing it of overstepping the mark and making [Thatcher] a scapegoat in an era of burgeoning political correctness.” Lord Tebbit is quoted as saying: “It is probably a bit of a way for the BBC to get back at Carol’s mother.” Cameron…
Bongs, brands and swimming against the tide
“So, what now for this latest dopey Olympian?” asked a headline in today’s Daily Mail, referring to American swimmer Michael Phelps’ bong-sucking faux pas. Phelps, who holds the record for the most gold medals won at a single Olympics (eight in Beijing) and the most ever golds won by an Olympian (fourteen), was photographed nursing a bong while out partying. He was not suspended over the issue as marijuana is not a performance-enhancing drug, but his PR machine tried their utmost to stop the story going public. When you’ve been covered in Olympic glory and deified as a sporting god,…
Viral Blog Flies Virgin
The Financial Times report on a blog that’s gone viral, complaining about the food on a Virgin flight from Mumbai to Heathrow, apparently written by a creative at WCRS advertising agency. They asked me for my take on the matter. “…some bloggers … suggest it was a viral marketing campaign by Virgin, a charge the company strenuously denies. Others believe it to be a shameless bit of self-promotion by the author, Oliver Beale, who happens to be a creative at advertising agency WCRS. But both Mr Beale and the agency seem keen to distance themselves from the e-mail. “Mark Borkowski,…
Brad Thinks Publicity's the Pitts
Dear old Brad Pitt. In an interview with Newsweek in the US this week, prior to the three-ring Oscar hoopla, the star says he’s sick and tired of the media focus on his relationship with Angelina Jolie. The actor hammers his point home throughout the interview, clearly believing the odd notion that his private life is totally separate from his career. “The publicity machine is out of control,” he tells the magazine. “It’s everything we didn’t sign up for.” Are you listening to your PR minders, Brad, or are they telling you want you want to hear? Here’s a…
Fame Formula Paperback Launch
The Fame Formula Paperback launch including a showing of Nothing Sacred (U) Wednesday, 29th April, 7.30 p.m. Riverside Studios, Crisp Road, Hammersmith, London Mark Borkowski celebrates the life and work of legendary Hollywood publicist Russell Birdwell at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith on April 29th to launch the paperback of his book, The Fame Formula. A talk at 7.30 p.m. will be followed by a showing of the long-unseen Carole Lombard screwball comedy Nothing Sacred (U), which Birdwell promoted, at 7.45 p.m. Nothing Sacred is one of the great screwball comedies. Journalist Wallace Cook (Frederick March) brings Hazel Flagg (Lombard)…