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.
TWIN EMBEDS IN IRAQ
This came to my attention this morning from www.editorandpublisher.com. It’s interesting how the ’embed’ game is being played out… ‘They may not get many takers, but Iraqi insurgents in the besieged city of Fallujah on Saturday invited journalists to “embed” with them to report their side of the war. E&P reported Friday that the Pentagon-run embedded-journalist program has surged again, with several dozen signing on with the main U.S. Marine units outside the city. “All media will be allowed into Fallujah to witness the crusade against Islam and see the real face of America. U.S. media will not be excluded,”…
Don't go changing
Whether it’s football or politics, it usually makes sense to stick with what you know and where you belong, writes Mark Borkowski Speculation that David Beckham plans to embark on a megabucks movie career when the time comes to hang up his golden boots was fuelled recently by the appearance of Tom Cruise at his side to watch Real Madrid beat Getafe 2-0.
Another H and K story
I picked this tale up from the excellent www.odwyerpr.com site. I am sure this is a scam. H&K VS. DE NIRO Hill & Knowlton is handling PR for the National Italian American Foundation, which is spearheading a coalition to persuade Italy to drop its plan to award honorary citizenship to Robert De Niro. The coalition is upset with De Niro for providing the voice to Lino, the leader of a mob of great white sharks in “Shark Tale,” the animated film from DreamWorks. That role furthers a negative stereotype of Italian-Americans, according to Steve Aiello, senior counselor at H&K and…
MARKET SHARE ERODES FOR BRAND AMERICA
A sobering thought from the curent issue of Fast Company to beat the re election blues. MARKET SHARE ERODES FOR BRAND AMERICA www.fastcompany.com/subscr/88/open_essay.html Two recent studies of international opinion have found a drop in williness to buy products from American companies. “People felt exploited by global expansion, inundated by our entertainment products, and put off by our arrogance,” reports Kristina Sacci. Within the past two years, she notes, “the number of consumers who use U.S. products from companies such as Microsoft and McDonald’s had dropped to 27% from 30%. Non-U.S. brands held their ground in the same period.” To fight…
Blobs of beige goo
Way of the World by Craig Brown GlaxoSmithKline, the manufacturers of Horlicks, have employed a public relations consultant, Mark Borkowski, to correct the ‘negative connotations’ associated with the bedtime beverage. In recent years pejorative expressions such as “What a Horlicks!” and “You’ve made a right Horlicks of it!” have begun to give the milky drink a bad name. The Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, once so cautious, has been a particular offender in this respect. Last year he described one of the Government’s dossiers on weapons of mass destruction as “a complete Horlicks”. By this he did not mean that the…
Tales from PR Watch
This story from PR-watch found its way into my inbox this morning. I am always interested to see how the heady world of PR earns a crust HILL & KNOWLTON GETS OUT THE (LOST) VOTE The Hill & Knowlton PR firm “is working to allay any voters’ concerns in Florida’s fourth largest county amid reports that votes were not counted by new electronic balloting machines in an August primary.” The firm’s $160,000 contract with Hillsborough County includes promoting e-voting machines and encouraging “voters to turn out and cast ballots.” Hill & Knowlton is also helping Republican elections supervisor Buddy Johnson…
The politics of chat
Dispatches Monday October 25, 2004 The Guardian What’s a poor publicist to do? When it comes to getting your clients on TV nowadays there are more chat shows than you can shake a remote at – currently over a dozen on terrestrial TV alone – but the five daily daytime slots are the hungriest. BBC Breakfast, GMTV, Des & Mel, Richard & Judy, and now Paul O’Grady all need good guests, and it’s often down to the publicists to choose which shows to pitch for. http://media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,7558,1335023,00.html
People power is winning the war against powerful corporate PR
The world may have gone off globalisation in a big way but more money is being poured into public relations than ever before on both sides of the Atlantic. So what is going on? Is this PR doing anyone any good? Or is it just face powder disguising the onset of decline? There is no doubt that People Power is getting stronger and corporations more jumpy. So they should be. We’re all more in tune with what is a stunt, hatched for publicity, and what are genuine product benefits. In future, when a human voice cuts through the robotic chanting…
Words on David
What the professionals say about Beckham By Standard Sport 13 October 2004 THE PUBLICIST Mark Borkowski, public relations expert Beckham is now in a situation that whatever he does is perceived as a PR stunt. People simply do not trust him and he’s there with the royal family, in that whatever he does he cannot get it right. My view is that he was wrong to make the tackle and wrong to come out and say what he did as all it does is fuel speculation. It looks like he’s trying to deflect attention from other stories and it’s very…
Macdonald's debate
Question mark is hanging over McDonald’s Telegraph.co.uk – London,England,UK … “You’ve got to applaud them,” says Mark Borkowski, the public relations consultant. “It’s phenomenally bold. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/10/14/nmed114.xml
The worst job in the world?
�I�m sure some people think I have not got the brains to be that clever. But I do have the brains.� That�ll be the England football captain speaking, having just admitted that once he realised he�d broken a rib or two in Saturday�s game, he then deliberately fouled another player in order to secure a second yellow card caution which would stop him having to go to Azerbaijan. The captain, okay? This is the sort of stuff of which our national heroes are made nowdays. That clever, eh? Mind you, I�m not surprised if he�s behaving oddly (or normally, depending…
My week so far
A surreal and bizarre week so far, kicking off with a kaleidoscopic Monday of laughter and tears. First to the Q Awards at the Grosvenor House, where half the Great and Good were gathered at a fantastic do. You�ve already heard about Sir Elton�s �f*****g� anti-Madge rave, but also present were U2, Elvis Costello, Mick Jones, the Pet Shop Boys, Don Letts, the Human League and Bryan Ferry, without Otis, but accompanied by an explanation for the offspring�s foxiness: him and the band all done up like country squires. Also there, as a lasting testament to the rigours of a…
A HAT-TRICK FOR TONY, TOO
The Prime Minister seems to have been relying too much on the telephone over the past few months, and not enough on professionals who can look him in the face and tell him what he should do. It’s all got quite embarrassing, and never more so than in the last 10 days, when we’ve seen Tony score a hat-trick against himself every bit as spectacular as Wayne Rooney’s. In reverse order, no competent publicist (sorry, ‘spokesman’) would have left a convalescent Prime Minister alone in a room with a phone. Give a former ‘rising-star’ the chance to dust off his…
n.A.T.o. – a pop singer dressed as a suicide-bomber – causes outrage
A self-styled “suicide bomber” musician who sings in Arabic and performs in a full-length burqa is planning a “terror concert” in Britain. .. Mark Borkowski, a public relations adviser and the author of Improperganda – The Art of the Publicity Stunt, called Mr Shapovalov “a ruthless promoter”. … http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/10/03/wnato03.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/10/03/ixworld.html
Spinning sugar
Spinwatch brings our attention to the following campaign “The Oldways Preservation Trust, which earlier this year held a conference in Italy to promote pasta, is organizing another journalists’ confab, this time to discuss the virtues of sugar,” PR Week reports. “The trust … has secured the Beverage Institute for Health and Wellness, a Coca-Cola affiliated organization, as a sponsor for its Conference on Sweetness and Health in Mexico City. … Journalists are being offered free travel and accommodations, if their organizations permit, to attend the meeting. The conference will feature roughly 20 scientists plus chefs talking about the place of…
ELECTION ’05: THE BLAIR PITCH PROJECT
When you’re out to win a piece of PR business you start with a credentials pitch. Here you lay out your wares in the most enticing way possible, dangling your USP hypnotically in front of the prospective client so that, with any luck, all resistance becomes futile. Yesterday New Labour Inc. came a-looking for our custom but didn’t risk putting any faith in something as vague as ‘luck’. Crammed with photo opportunities portraying Tony, Cherie and their cabinet ministers as one big, joyous family, not a trick was missed. Tony showed determination from the very start, picking off and disposing…
Gordon Blue
Good chat with Lynne Franks yesterday on what used to be GLR but is now called BBC London. At one point the producer nipped in to tick Lynne off for using ‘bloody’, which I found quaint. Apparently ‘crap’ is fine on the BBC, but ‘bloody’ starts the phones ringing. They were glad I wasn’t Gordon Ramsey, however, who managed 4 ‘fucks’ and 23 ‘bollocks’ in his last appearance and probably won’t be asked back. He’ll cope with the disappointment quite well, I predict.
BAD NEWS
The eerie, blurred video images of the hostage Kenneth Bigley, pleading for his life with the odds so stacked against him, are working hard demoralising us in every living room in the land. The poor man may well suspect that he’s an unwitting pawn in someone else’s publicity stunt, but he probably won’t see the irony that these black arts of press manipulation originated in the USA. Forget bombs and missiles and warplanes; think communications. The biggest noise coming from Iraq is in the world’s press, on satellite TV and on the internet, where the war is going extremely badly…
BREAKING NEWS
The eerie, blurred video images of the hostage Kenneth Bigley, pleading for his life with the odds so stacked against him, are working hard demoralising us in every living room in the land. The poor man may well suspect that he’s an unwitting pawn in someone else’s publicity stunt, but he probably won’t see the irony that these black arts of press manipulation originated in the USA. Forget bombs and missiles and warplanes; think communications. The biggest noise coming from Iraq is in the world’s press, on satellite TV and on the internet, where the war is going extremely badly…
AND THE WINNER IS…
Just back from helping judge the Grierson Awards for documentary film making. They’re named after the great John ‘Night Mail’ Grierson (1898-1972), but that’s all I’m allowed to tell you. I can’t tell you what we judged, what won, what lost, who the other judges are or where we did the judging. A quick glance at their website confirms that Esther Rantzen gave away the gongs last year, but as to who’s doing it this year is anybody’s guess. It’s all extremely hush-hush. Unusual PR approach for a charitable Trust.