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.
Marriage or bust.
Following the destruction of the career of MGM actor William Haines, who refused to end his relationship with his gay lover Jimmy Shields and enter into a “lavender marriage” on the request of MGM, a spate of such marriages occurred so gay and lesbian couples could seek refuge in this institution. A lavender marriage is a term used to describe a marriage between a man and woman in which one or both parties are homosexual / lesbian. Usually both parties are complicit in a public deception to hide their homosexuality. It became very common in Hollywood in the 1910’s and…
PR Stunts I Have Loved
The insanity around the Prince free album debate is unbelievable. The Mail On Sunday giveaway yesterday of Prince’s Planet Earth caused uproar amongst the music retail stores who claimed it devalued music on every level. I myself think this is one of the two great publicity stunts so far this year. Prince’s album sales have gone up and down throughout his career. His last album to reach number one in the U.S. was 2131 last year, but this was his first U.S. number one for seventeen years. Prince was paid by The Mail On Sunday an amount rumoured to be…
Facebook Phenomenon
The last few days have seen the broad sheets chattering over the growth of Facebook and its ability to become one of the most astounding of the web 2 offerings. This development has been driven by an extremely clever and one can argue, compelling publicity stunt. All new web platforms face the problem of sustaining interest. At the moment there are hundreds of thousands of people of all ages placing their profiles on Facebook, but what’s popular today can soon become old news. The stunt is involving technical developers and inviting them to create applications that will work within Facebook,…
The Black Mass
The publicity stunt is not a tool used only by wily pr’s but has been taken on board by certain weird religious groups to further their following. For example, in 1967, Anton LaVey, the founder of the Church of Satan baptized his daughter Zeena at the Black House. This was a Victorian mansion that stood at 6114 California Street in San Francisco, which Anton LaVey used as his headquarters for the Church of Satan. He conducted many satanic seminars and rituals at the Black House, but the most famous was the Baptism of his daughter which was widely publicised at…
Live Earth
Reading this morning’s papers, I couldn’t help but notice the lacklustre coverage for yesterday’s “Live Earth” event. It strikes me that perhaps we’ve all got big event fatigue. Two years ago I was asked to be on a panel organised by the media magazine PR Week, to judge the greatest publicity stunts of all time. Live Aid was one of them, an event which we all felt was a challenging, clever, awareness raising, life affirming, fresh and brilliant idea which generated instant fame, coverage and money. Above all; it really made a difference. Part of its success I think was…
70s poster icon is back, so anyone for Tennis Girl?
From the Scotsman – IT WAS the poster that adorned the walls of countless adolescents at the end of the 1970s and fuelled a million male fantasies. Caught in bright sunlight, a woman tennis player, lopes off court, rather indiscretely scratching a naked buttock. Now Tennis Girl, taken by photographer Martin Elliott in 1976, is posed for a return match The marketing expert Mark Borkowski cites Tennis Girl as “the first glossy popular pornographic shot”, adding: “It was fairly innocent – it was one of those student posters.”However, he believes its revival now is purely driven by nostalgia. “The need…
False idols
Michael Parkinson’s golden age of genuine celebrity is, alas, long gone, replaced for good by an unhealthy obsession with talentless and transient D-listers Mark Borkowski Thursday July 5, 2007 MediaGuardian.co.uk http://media.guardian.co.uk/columnists/story/0,,2119155,00.html
George Melly
It’s a sad day today as George Melly is dead. He was one of the true entertainers and raconteurs. I met him when I was working as a fledgling publicist at the Wyvern Theatre in Swindon where George would entertain the citizens of Swindon with his peculiar stage performances. One of his greatest fans was my mother who really thought her son had made it when I introduced her to him backstage. Years later, I reconnected with him in the Assembly Room members bar at Edinburgh where he regaled me with stories, many too rude to put on the blog. …
Proud Sponsors of the Genocide Olympics
This arrived in my inbox this morning read the full article in Business Week. The practicalities of the commercial world. Proud Sponsors of the Genocide Olympics Business Week, June 21, 2007 http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/jun2007/gb20070621_511854.htm Among the nightmares that might plague a marketing executive, bankrolling an event that some call the Genocide Olympics could well be one of the worst. But that’s just what the likes of Adidas, Coca-Cola (KO), General Electric (GE), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Kodak, McDonald’s (MCD), Samsung, Visa, and others are facing. As Beijing prepares for the Summer Games in August, 2008, activists around the world are planning to…
Elephant Style
Leafing through a set of files, I am reminded about how the publicity stunts have been dwindling over the years, probably because people are too straight laced or uptight when it comes to taking risks. Max Rosey was the genius behind many a PR stunt. Rosey was the legendary New York PR man who put an elephant on a giant water ski in the Hudson River to promote an amusement park. Of course, these days you’d never be allowed to do such a politically incorrect stunt involving animals. One of Rosey’s best stunts was the one he came up with…
Bad Girl Army
She’s the biggest thing to come out of Britain since The Spice Girls. But will the wine, the man and the attitude be enough for Amy Winehouse? There is nothing conventional about Amy Winehouse. She seems to have sprung fully formed from a subterranean music dungeon – a creature of extravagant plumage, big hair, black mascara trowelled on, red lips like slices of juicy plums. She is a kind of cross between a member of The Ronettes and a Goth Dusty Springfield. http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,21996773-5005368,00.html
Royals to the Lions
Peter McKay in today’s Daily Mail suggests that Princes Harry and William are being advised by their media minders to go for the easy option when being interviewed. McKay thinks the Princes should not seek to control their questions and should perhaps face Jeremy Paxman or John Humphrys. In my opinion, the Royal Family get enough of a battering from the media, so if the Princes choose to media manage, then good on them. The punters don’t distinguish between an OK interview or a Paxman interview. We’re in the age of Heat and Closer Magazines, why should the Princes chose…
Aaron Cushman
From “When Elephants Ski – The Publicity Stunt Is an Institution as American as, Well, the President by Peter Carlson Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, May 1, 2004 Aaron Cushman, is a legendary Chicago PR man and author of a 2003 memoir, “A Passion for Winning: Fifty Years of Promoting Legendary People and Products.” He’s talking about a shameless stunt he produced for Marriott hotels in the late ’70s. When Cushman learned that Marriott was planning to break ground for three new hotels in one day — in Kansas City, Denver and Newport Beach, Calif. — he figured he…
Paranoid chatter
I thought I would share an email that came in today. The senders name has been dropped off for obvious reasons. S**t just hit fan with the car bombing so calling all national papers and pitching our security expert in as a spokesperson, expert etc (of the millions of things we do, we stuff like protecting companies against terrorism etc). anyway, he knows everyone at NATO, M15, can kill with his bare hands etc. Quote of the day from him “we knew this would happen, it’s just start of a new wave of attacks. They’ve woken up the sleeper cells”. Not sure…
Watch This Spice
At a press conference today, it was announced that the Spice Girls will reform for a World Tour commencing this December. Everyone is super heated about just how much money this tour will generate. Simon Fuller is behind it, and one thing is certain, and that’s that he can make money even while he’s sleeping. Everything he touches seems to be a massive success. So it will be interesting to see how ticket sales fare. If early signs are good, then this tour will be one of the most successful tours to date, but just because it worked for Take…
The mighty Christopher Guest – Likely Stories – "Dead Ringer"
The early work of the comic genius
Dollars from Dollies
Annual events that we all know and love, especially those in the U.S., began more often than not, as cheap publicity stunts. The Miss America pageant started as a stunt to lure tourists to Atlantic City in 1921. The stunts became so shameless in their purpose, that by the late 1920’s the American Association of Publishers tried to persuade its members to ignore the covering of pageants due to their aims, claiming it was “the most flagrant use of free publicity”. Inevitably, all the papers ignored the suggestion as the content was so compelling. It only went to show that…
Macabre
In the 1950’s, the Hollywood producer, William Castle, became so frustrated by the lack of PR ingenuity and the general disinterest from publicists to plug his movies, that he started to concoct his own publicity stunts. His 1958 movie “Macabre” starring William Prince and Jim Backus received the familiar, “don’t ring us, we’ll ring you”, so Castle decided to publicise it himself. He took out a Lloyds Insurance Policy, insuring all ticket holders against death by fright. The premiere was held in Indianapolis and Castle arrived in a coffin which was carried by a hearse. The movie theatre was packed and the…
The Real Deal
Sorry for the blog silence over the past few days but I’ve been deeply immersed in mud, sweat and tears at this year’s Glastonbury Festival. What a colossus it has become – physically and culturally. It’s such an amazing, stand alone event, but one which to some is probably just another summer music festival. If you’re back stage, then you could actually be at any other music festival. But there is a special spirit to Glastonbury which anyone can find if they make a little effort. Unlike the regular music biz execs and their whores who spend the entire festival in…
Animal Magic
Following on from my blog Mark My Words, about stunts and stories being done before, the idea to pander to animals and treat them like humans (for example, the well publicised dog wedding that one of my consumer teams organised for Harrods’ “Anything is Possible” campaign) has been around for decades. Way back in 1951, a publicity stunt was created for the opening of the station restaurant at the Gare de L’Est in Paris. A canine section was created so that French travellers could bring their dogs for an afternoon or evening full of treats. Firstly, they would be fed…