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.
Chocolate Billboard
Once upon a time, there was little imaginative thinking when using outside space for publicity stunts. Brands were merely content to have a uniform message on thousands of Adshel sites all over the Capital. I firmly believe there is a fantastic opportunity to bring outdoor advertising to life. Yesterday, we created an action in Covent Garden for our client, Thorntons. Borkowski produced the first ever chocolate billboard, made from 128 panels of chocolate, weighing 390 kilos. It also had 72 three dimensional eggs and 10 hand crafted bunnies embedded into it. The idea was to kick off the Easter celebrations…
Falkland War and Ian Macdonald the voice of the bad news remembered
There has been so much coverage this weekend on the anniversary of the Falklands War, with many of the original war correspondents reminiscing 25 years on. One person who isn’t seen in print marking the anniversary though is Ian Macdonald, ministry of defence spokesperson who became a nightly figure in the nations’ living rooms. Macdonald appeared on our TV screens providing briefings on the Falklands War, like a baddy in Dr Who he announced in an eerily monotone voice any bad news on the war front from the number of casualties to the explosion of a rogue exocet missile.
CELEBRITY THERAPY
The Borkowski poet in residence considers the relationship between celebrities and pain in the wake of Halle Berry telling America’s Parade magazine recently that she had contemplated suicide after her first marriage imploded. Pain is an implement for careful use, when nothing else will raise your name out of the gutter of yesterday’s news. When cleavage doesn’t cut it and the paparazzi’s knicker shots are stuffed with last week’s fast food at the bottom of bins for rats to feast on pain is the only tool left in the box. So bring out your suffering, your suicide attempts, your teenage…
Steve Mclaren and the art of great PR
Beleaguered England manager, Steve McClaren, was caught throwing his toys out of the pram during a post-match conference following England’s unenthusiastic performance against the minnows of European football, Andorra. Instead of fielding an array of pointed questions from the assembled press corps, the England coach simply walked out of the post-match news conference, telling the media: “Gentlemen, if you want to write whatever you want to write, you can write it because that is all I am going to say. Thank you,” I am really not sure why he dispensed with Max Clifford, who was working on his case last…
Lessons of the PR founding fathers
Mark Borkowski on using the lessons of the PR founding fathers to keep it real in the 21st Century Click here to view enlarged image
PR Week Powerbook
I am informed by David Brain’s blog that PR Week have published their PowerBook, Evidently I am on a list of folk that have declared some strange peccadilloes. David’s blog http://www.sixtysecondview.com has more information, when I can find the time to read the thing I will offer my point of view.
Food For Thought
The food industry is an ingenious beast when it comes to persuading consumers to swallow information about the benefits of their foods. It’s a long-term investment for them to manufacture attitudes towards their product and they’ll go to any length to plug it, covertly or openly. Usually, stealth is the favoured action. There’s a story in the news at the moment that illustrates this perfectly; an American university has been attempting to make the humble pizza a healthier option by baking it for longer at hotter temperatures. The university claims that they’re “not trying to make junk food more healthy”…
Wimpey & Woodrow
Listening to the Today Programme yesterday morning, I was depressed to hear the story in Business News about the merger of George Wimpey and Taylor Woodrow. The reason was not so much the merger itself, but the bland and faceless media-trained voice of Peter Redfern, chief executive of Wimpey. It was deeply upsetting to hear him, at 7.20am, droning on in an emotionless voice about land banks and lack of housing and how the merged companies would be very compatible. In the drive to create an environment where there are no Ratner moments, where the message slips down as smoothly…
CELEBRITY WORLD
The Borkowski poet in residence takes a scathing look at the world of celebrity and its knock on effects. This is a world encased in plastic and driven on by image where even the winners are losers and the search for fame’s a scrimmage A world coated in Teflon where even cricket is corrupt and the coaches can be murdered if the ante isn’t upped A world devoid of meaning where Paris Hilton and Kate Moss compete for formulaic headlines and turn the news to dross A world bent on escape a world of plastic dolls a world burning like…
Strickly Hollywood
The internet is littered with mythical tales of early Hollywood scandals that never saw the light of day; rape, abortions, drug abuse and suicide amongst others. Back then, the media was corralled by publicists and many deals were struck with high-ranking officials in the police department to keep most of them – from the least offensive to the quite horrible – from public knowledge. Howard Strickland, operating in the 1940s, was almost certainly the most powerful Hollywood publicist of his time. A studio Goliath, his main line of work was to ensure that reputations were managed and that the Davids…
Why my staff are the best PR folk in London.
I need to send out a big thank you to the team from Borkowski who handled the PS3 launch at Virgin Megastores so brilliantly. The team turned up at Oxford Street on Wednesday at 11am to get things underway and worked through to midnight, then turned up on Thursday morning at 5.30am and worked right through to 2am on Friday morning, making sure that everything was right, that the press got the stories and pictures they needed and that everyone was happy. Basically they worked like Trojans, sorting out all the interviews and photo calls, contacting the press, manning the…
Danielle Lloyd's cleavage and the Institute for Advanced Concepts.- (Geeks vs Totty)
Despite having been a social pariah not so long ago, thanks to her role in the racist bullying on Celebrity Big Brother in January, Danielle Lloyd seems to be making something of a career statement – in the pages of the tabloids at least – despite headlines mere weeks ago suggesting that she’d never work in this country again after Shilpa-gate. The red tops were out for blood initially, but since then, the Daily Star has discovered that, whenever they’ve published pictures of Danielle in various stages of undress, sales of the paper have rocketed to lads. It’s hardly a…
More comment on Heather Mills attempts to resurrect her brand
The interview is from the BBC5 Live Drive-time show
CATWALK QUEEN
The Borkowski poet in residence on Naomi Campbell’s community service clearing garbage in New York after assaulting her housemaid last year. She’s a catwalk queen famed for punching servants out. She’s a solipsist; it’s her creed and she’s most devout. She’s Monroe mixed with Daffy Duck, she’s capable of carnage but she must still look sexy when she’s sorting through the garbage. She’s a catwalk queen and in bubbles of unreality she’s lived a life of privilege far out from normality. She’s spiked her life in Streatham on a pair of heels from Louboutin. She’s an expert at looking glorious…
Heather Mills: battle weary but not beaten
Heather Mills may be suffering the slings, arrows and accusations of outrageous fortune hunting on all fronts at the moment, thanks to her divorce from Sir Paul McCartney, but she is, despite it all, keeping up a media-savvy brand development which would suggest that she’ll last a lot longer in the public eye than many might hope or expect. She clearly has a keen eye for headlines and the world of celebrity. And there’s no doubt that she’s good at targeting events that will engender sympathy in the long run. Take her appearance on Dancing With the Stars, which she…
Mark joins in the debate about switching codes
Mark joins in the debate about switching codes. Can entertainment publicists convince brands that they know something about content connection and stewardship?’
Food For Thought
Today’s news was dominated by two stories. The first to be served up was a survey on how our busy lives are leading us to be able to cook only four different meals in our lifetime. Lack of time and long working hours mean we don’t learn how to cook different dishes and plump for the good old favourites like Spaghetti Bolognese and Chile Con Carne. I’m usually tough on surveys, unless it’s part of a bigger campaign, as they are a lazy tool offered up by process-driven PR shops brimming with fluffy Muppets, but intriguingly this survey was commissioned…
IT’S JUST NOT CRICKET
Written after Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff was dropped as vice-captain of England’s World Cup cricket team for falling drunk from a pedalo boat whilst celebrating by cricket authorities whose memories clearly don’t extend as far back as the 1980s and Ian Botham. Cricket is a noble sport. No drunkards are allowed. Cricketers must hold their heads up high and be by hangovers unbowed. It’s just not cricket to carouse or to laugh and sing and drink and then fall out of a pedal boat and very nearly sink. Cricket is a splendid sport, a celebration in itself. No cricketer should take…