Public confidence in the government’s coronavirus response is at an all-time low—and for good reason. The cabinet’s communications have been piecemeal, difficult to follow, and subject to last-minute revision.The latest assurances that the military will be called in are no real improvement—Ben Wallace’s announcement was more parade, without any substance.The disastrous consequences of this lacklustre response were seen on the fifteenth of December, when the cabinet made a sudden move to retract its promise to allow households to mix on Christmas. The announcement felt frantic and reactionary. The rest of the world read ‘Mutant Corona ravages Britain’, and Britons felt…

This week, BrewDog made the visionary decision to offer (and to announce that it was offering) its 50 or so closed pub locations to help with a roll out of the Coronavirus vaccine.Whereas other business leaders have met the latest announcement with more grovelling for support, this response is truly epic. It makes the best of a bad situation, and turns a disadvantage (all its venues will be closed through at least mid-February) into an advantage (truly great and authentic PR). And Nicola Sturgeon is evidently thinking about taking them up on it!Whether or not this ends up with over-50s queuing up, beer-in-hand,…

Johnny Depp took one hell of a gamble – and he’s lost out. In fact, everyone involved has lost. Now, in the aftermath, we have the immovable object of the words ‘wife beater’ experiencing the pressure of an irresistible force – Depp’s super-fans. That international fanbase worked to protect their icon – ensuring that #JusticeForJohnnyDepp trended next to #TheScum (the ugly nickname for The Sun). It’s fascinating to see so many modern cultural trends intersect and collide. From social media vs. traditional media, the people vs. the judiciary, the press vs. the powerful, to the true meaning of #MeToo. Does…

In turbulent times decision makers in any industry – be it CEOs, politicians, film directors or football managers- will fall back on tactics which served them well in the past, even if that past is growing distant and the tactic dating doublequick. The mechanism behind this decision is simple: the greater the desperation, the less strategic consideration goes into the adoption of the tactic.Following this logic, PR – in terms of practice – is in a pitiful state.Floating things down the Thames was fun 30 years ago, but for Amazon – one of the most belligerently successful and COVID-proof companies…

Shaun Bailey is in an interesting position. Standing for Mayor against an incumbent he is months out and 22 points behind in the polls with finances no doubt stretched to breaking point by the extended race. With no money or momentum – it’s now or never.Under this pressure, we get a glimpse of the true character of Mr. Bailey. Does he begin to frame this as a heroic defeat? Does he declare war on his unpopular allies? Does he announce a long-held, controversial policy decision? Does he, like the great Rory Stewart, completely upend the preconception of a politician by…

Is this a coronavirus fever dream or is Boris Johnson once again stumbling into a PR battle with Marcus ‘Leader of the Opposition’ Rashford?Johnson has just rejected Rashford’s campaign for school meals over half-term on the grounds that: “We’re in a different position now with schools back open to all pupils… It’s not for schools to provide food for pupils during the school holidays.”How is it, that when the order of the day is to show calm and decisive leadership Johnson is charging headlong into another inevitable and identical U-turn? The first rule of politics is that you cannot win…

Hot on the heels of the Chancellor patronisingly asking artists across the country to retrain in order to survive Covid – not taking the time to think that many struggling actors already hold part-time jobs.Just last week Fatima, the ballerina (actually a stock photo from the internet of a dancer from Atlanta) is told that she has to give up on her dreams and get to work on excel. Regardless of the fact that this advertisement came out several years ago, and that it refers to a scheme originally aimed at young people looking to retrain careers, it fits so snugly…

Burger King got rave reviews for its latest ad-campaign where it sponsored Stevenage FC in order to launch a challenge on FIFA. Hoping that the digital image of Sergio Ramos holding a cup above his head would grab attention, customers and headlines. Sports bible etc., predictably, loved it.Under even the barest scrutiny it fell apart to reveal a clever ad-placing campaign dressed up in the cloths of rank gentrification – but the PR was brilliant.The launch advert (a kind of fever dream of ‘urban imagery’, nonsensical poetry and obnoxious yet forgettable music) only got 20k views on YouTube when it…

Extinction Rebellion have accomplished an incredible thing. They have driven the discussion of environment collapse right into the mainstream. But just as political struggles all need to have passion in the streets and finesse in smoke filled rooms, XR blazed across the headlines to make the space for producers to create the recent Attenborough documentary. Their pressure has built from the picket sign to the boardroom. This is brilliant news. But the mistake that XR can make is to view itself as a movement, when in fact it is a small part of this much wider movement. As a result,…

I’ve been mulling the furore around Sasha Swire’s Diary of an MP’s Wife and it’s got me thinking about the mechanics which lead, firstly, to hangers-on attempting to heave their entire social circle under the bus for their 15 minutes, and secondly, to figures in power allowing this to happen through their own arrogance and carelessness. Firstly, Sasha herself. The weekend’s media blitz gave off the overwhelming stench of winging it. She’s thrown the baby out with the bathwater in an attempt to make as big a splash as possible. But what will this do for her career long term?…

With the news that Meghan Markle and Harry Windsor are going to set up their own studio which will be making overtly political documentaries, it is worth considering the lessons that can be drawn from their closest contemporaries – the Obamas. Barack and Michelle have both done brilliant things in their post-Presidency, learning the appropriate lessons from President Clinton and from Tony Blair. If you spend your time doing political work, you leave yourself open to the continued grudges and attack of a hyper-aggressive political press pool/lobby without the protective shield of a press team or even power. Eventually your…

At a glance, this is terrifying. We talk and talk about purpose and authenticity but the ugly truth is that, with the right platform, a little style and some gumption, the conspiracy brigade is attracting a bigger audience than ever.It’s got me thinking about levels of influence. David Icke is a figure of fun but he’s managed to get tens of thousands of people to mobilise behind his crackpot theories, which has forced the world’s most influential media channels – who have spent decades keeping his message away from a mainstream audience- to amplify the howl of his cohorts.But, rather…

Screw the backlash. This is brilliant. With the advent of every new media comes the gold rush; the scramble for the advertising, comms and marketing industries to find a sweet spot in which commercial content can gain, or at least hijack an organic audience before the platform undergoes a Facebook style-hypercommercialisation. I’ve been a fan of Twitch since it launched and think it’s a hugely exciting world, but what Ogilvy and Burger King have done here is gamed the system, exploited a huge loophole and gained a lot of attention. The fact that it wound some people up will not…

Ben & Jerry’s have always had activism at their heart but they need to be careful not to overreach and turn into BrewDog.A lot of our PR fables seem to be confectionary-based these days, but as I’ve said before, junk food peddlers have some of the biggest mouths in the media industry.The ice cream barons are no exception and generally do a decent job of turning political stances into values they live by, and then leveraging these values into clever marketing for their (decidedly apolitical) product.Their BLM support was a recent example, as was their parting of the ways with…

Fast Food is a fascinating industry for PR-watchers, one of the few where brands still allot budget and freedom to big, bombastic stunts. In the UK we rarely go a month without a (largely very effective) Greggs wheeze, while across the pond an escalating series of shenanigans (of questionable PR value) has recently included Popeye Chicken flying producer Diplo a free sample of a sold-out viral sandwich on a private jet, KFC sponsoring a music festival complete with a ‘Colonel Sanders’ DJ set and then the same poultry peddlers last week announcing a bizarre partnership with Crocs to produce a…

  I will be talking publicly about the repurposing of celebrity as a theme over the coming weeks and why you should keep your eyes out for this new style of celebrity.   First of all, hats off to Marcus Rashford. He has managed to force as many U-turns out of this wobbling government as Kier Starmer has. I believe, and I’ve been saying this for some time, that Rashford represent the vanguard of a new style of celebrity.   Up until recently, footballers would try and do as little talking off of the pitch as possible. Their media training…

I will be judging the award for best PR campaigns at The Drum awards later this year, and there’s already a massive frontrunner in my mind. The anonymous executive with an eye for mischief who has banned Fawlty Towers has done something absolutely brilliant. Let me explain. Any great publicity stunt combines celebrity with controversy. I refuse to believe that political correctness has gone this far. Fawlty Towers, endlessly voted the nation’s favourite sitcom, banned with immediate affect for racism!? I know a stunt when I see one and I spotted this one straight away. Think about it. Who had even heard of UKTV?…

When I saw that Bristol had torn down the statue of Edward Colston, it was a powerful event. An evil man of his time who made his fortune and built a city, lying at the feet of ancestors of the lives he ruined. It was a potent image, but I thought it could have been better.  You only need to walk out of our abandoned office in Somerset House, down The Strand to Westminster and you’ll see statues of this country’s great and the good. Men who pillaged continents, leaving millions of people destitute, starving and owned. A fifth of…

The key for modern unscrupulous politicians is to get between their critics and the electorate. Trump, Corbyn and Cummings have all spent hours talking about how the media is fake, bias and sitting in ivory towers laughing at the little people. It’s a potent siren song for any voter and Cummings clearly counted on it when he marched out of his front door saying to the waiting journalists ‘remember Brexit? You got that wrong too.’ But he’s been caught in the populist’s trap – suddenly becoming into the arrogant, elitist enemy that he had always attacked. Every act, from the…