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.
Spin docs take a funny turn
… Falling into this last category, presumably, is PR supremo Mark Borkowski (below). ‘What on earth was the Privy Council thinking … How does one take the news that the Institute of Public Relations has gone all legit and become the Chartered IPR? Last week, after 50 years of trying (apparently), the spin doctors’ union was at last granted the title by the Privy Council, whose job it is to hand out these gongs. But what does it all mean? That depends on who you listen to.
Dispatches: A riot of their own
Who says there’s no such thing as bad publicity? Try telling that to the marketing executives of Ikea today. So successful was the hyping of Thursday’s new store opening in north London, that it turned into a disaster of spectacular proportions.
KNEEL!
Not a whisper, not a word, not even an inkling. Nothing. When my mobile went ‘beep’ this morning with the hot news courtesy of my MediaGuardian alert . I was genuinely astonished. Perhaps I’m flattering myself here, but the old ears are supposed to be pretty well cued-in at ground-level, the personal radar suitably calibrated and the senses switched to ‘Receive’, but there’d not been even a suggestion that the House of Windsor was about to drop the royal equivalent of Shock & Awe on the long-suffering British public. So soon after Harry’s swastika brick, too. What’s going on? I…
Bruised, he may be. But you can't write off Max Clifford
PR: Bruised, he may be. But you can’t write off Max Clifford Fellow showbiz publicist Mark Borkowski says the Clifford brand will survive the Hamiltons’ victory 06 February 2005 http://news.independent.co.uk/media/story.jsp?story=608106 Max Clifford has worked in publicity since 1962 and has forgotten more than most media teenies know. He understands all about the really famous as well as the merely infamous. As his experience and status were at their height, so too was the cult of celebrity, leaving him in exactly the right place at the right time. Part journalist, part deal-maker, he is the ultimate media middleman, who looks after…
Necessity is the mother of reinvention
‘Doing a Sharon Stone’ is not necessarily the best way to revive a flagging career, If the star of your celebrity has faded to a crepuscular glow, your best option is to do something that will make the public see you in a completely new light. This is the advice that two Hollywood agents have recently given their clients, though the reinvention has taken dramatically different guises. http://media.guardian.co.uk/columnists/story/0,7550,1401137,00.html
A new front is opened up in the cola wars: diet-conscious men
… The PR consultant Mark Borkowski believes that in the longer term, diet cola brands will have to face wider issues than whether a drink contains sugar. … By Ciar Byrne, INDEPENDENT Media Correspondent 01 February 2005 http://news.independent.co.uk/media/story.jsp?story=606545
The real sultan of spin
John Rendon is one of the most powerful men in the world, but the PR specialist rarely comes of out of the shadows Why are we all obsessed by lists? Take a look at the news agenda of any particular week and the media is full of them. This week it’s been lists of Oscar nominees. Next week it will be lists of candidates in the Iraq election. And the latter will be heavily influenced by a man whose name should come near any list of the world’s top power brokers. Not Bush or Blair, but the shadowy figure of…
A force for good: poll shows positive impact of journalism
A unique survey commissioned by Press Gazette gives the lie to the often quoted assumption that the British public does not value journalism. More than half those surveyed in a YouGov national opinion poll (52 per cent) said they agreed with the statement: “Journalism makes a positive contribution to life in Britain”. Some 32 per cent didn’t agree and 16 per cent were “don’t knows”. Press Gazette has also conducted its own straw poll of public figures which has found some unlikely fans of journalism. Mark Borkowski, PR pundit and MD of Borkowski PR, said: “I don’t think it does…
Not old enough to know better?
Prince Harry’s unfortunate choice of fancy dress demonstrates a lack of knowledge and perspective. Something should be done to awaken in the prince and his contemporaries a solidarity with earlier generations. I have a friend in New York City employed as a senior picture editor by one of the major photographic agencies. Although he is nearly 70 years old, he has kept his job way past his retirement date, despite company policy to the contrary, because he’s the only person in the building who knows Who’s Who in all the old pictures from the ’40s, ’50s, and ’60s. To his…
Exit the canny granny
Germaine Greer did more than most contestants to expose the dark underbelly of the reality TV format. It seems only yesterday I was writing about Janet Street-Porter’s decision to head off into the jungle of reality TV and put her intellect on display in the Australian bush among all those loathsome creepy-crawlies.
Drama lessons
Theatre needs the oxygen of publicity to remind us that it matters, says Mark Borkowski Thursday December 23, 2004 Roald Dahl’s children’s book The Witches was dramatised by David Wood several years ago, and in its professional productions, especially at Christmas, attracts its fair share of objections as a suitable treat for young theatregoers. The letters arrive, not by the sackload, but enough: witches = black arts = paganism = the antichrist… that kind of thing. And how Dahl, who believed passionately in spreading secular sedition, would have enjoyed it.
The Reputation Terrorist
Yet another interesting snippet from the excellent Spin watch, but I wrote a feature on this issue in the Guardian two years ago. FLACKS ATTACK “DETERMINED DETRACTORS” http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/27/business/media/27adco.htm BuzzMetrics, a New York-based specialist in word-of-mouth marketing, is among the companies working to tame the internet by going after “determined detractors,” which the New York Times defines as “persistent critics of a company or product which mount their own public relations offensive, often online.” According to Paul Rand, Managing Director at Ketchum Midwest in Chicago, “One determined detractor can do as much damage as 100,000 positive mentions can do good.” Detractors,…
Blunkett’s resignation
The note of triumphalism over David Blunkett’s resignation sounded by the Fortier-Quinn camp really tells us quite enough about them. Were not a Sword of Damocles hanging over their future in terms of the ex-Home Secretary’s action to secure access to his son, I’ve a feeling the press would be dealing with them in a considerably more creative manner than seems to have been the case this morning. The story will wait and it’s a dish best served cold. The mystery is really how the third most powerful man in the Government could have wound up in this situation. Where…
THEATRE NEEDS THE OXYGEN OF PUBLICITY TO REMIND US THAT IT MATTERS
Roald’s Dahl’s children’s book “The Witches” was dramatised by David Wood several years ago and in its professional productions, especially at Christmas, attracts its fair share of objections as a suitable treat for 7 – 12-year-old theatregoers. The letters arrive, not by the sackload, but enough: Witches = Black Arts = Paganism = The Antichrist…that kind of thing. And how Dahl, who believed passionately in spreading secular sedition, would have enjoyed it. Being polite, theatre managements always acknowledge such concerns, but up goes the curtain anyway. It’s just the way we do things in our enlightened, inclusive British society.
How other PR companies make money
A Dubious Doc By Eartha Melzer, In These Times. Eartha is a writer and videographer in Washington. A ‘groundbreaking’ pre-election documentary on the ‘real story’ in Iraq smells like propaganda and has the pr muscle of Manning, Selvage & Lee behind it. Just before the election, a film about Iraq hit art house theaters around the country. “Voices of Iraq” claimed to be a groundbreaking film in which “150 DV cameras [are] distributed across Iraq for the Iraqi people to show the world who they are and what Iraq will be.”
The death of a great British Brand
They’ve already crowned themselves king and queen of our out-of-control celebrity culture, but now Posh and Becks are to be deified – it’s official. Well not quite, but our favourite couple might have thought twice before presenting themselves to the public as the mother and father of baby Jesus. No such qualms for Madame Tussaud’s who have dusted down the Beckhams’ waxworks, dressed them up in ‘ancient robes’ and installed the couple as Joseph and Mary in their nativity scene.
Independent Media section Monday
Out of the jungle, into the trash Independent – London,England,UK … “What [reality TV] is doing is pushing people to make more considered decisions about who they are looking for to endorse products,” says PR Mark Borkowski. …
Brands and Brando
Brands don’t live on shelves or in showrooms. They don’t even live on TV screens, although you could easily make that mistake. Brands live in our hearts and in our heads, and that’s where they die too, when their time is up. ‘I’m A Celebrity – Get Me Out Of Here!’ is back, peddling its peculiar mix of voyeurism and overacting, cast this time from a selection of apparently quite normal people, a couple of whom have no faint claim to any kind of ‘celebrity’ whatsoever, but I suppose they’ll be hellish famous by the end of the week. Others,…
The Chav pound
From today’s Independent It’s time to tap the chav pound, innit .. PR consultant Mark Borkowski is sceptical. “There’ve always been tribes to be parodied – right back to the Teddy Boys,” he says. … http://news.independent.co.uk/media/story.jsp?story=583060
Now here is an interesting theory
Hollywood brought Kerry down By Rabbi Shmuley Boteach Conventional wisdom has it that the “morality voters” who rose to such prominence in this election voted for President Bush because of their opposition to gay marriage. But that is a complete misreading of why the morality voters dumped John Kerry. In reality, the No. 1 moral issue for most Americans is not gay marriage, but the foul and sleazy culture which is destroying their children’s innocence. And it was John Kerry’s alignment with Hollywood and its celebrities � who came out in full force for his elevation � that ultimately did…