Mark Comments in the Press.
With a keen eye for cultural trends and a depth of insight honed through years of experience in the public eye, Mark stands as a beacon of clarity in a world often shrouded in confusion.
Mark’s commentary is both thought-provoking and incisive, inviting audiences to see beyond the surface and engage with the complexities of our times.
The Fame Formula paperback and competition
These are exciting times for The Fame Formula; the book is due out in paperback in a couple of weeks and I’m enjoying seeing proofs come in from the publishers (it’s looking good!) and also the Fame Formula competition is coming to a close. What’s particularly pleasurable about the competition is that not only is it very difficult to decide a winner – there are several entries that are strong contenders and, as a consequence, the choice is going to be very hard indeed – but there are also a number of strong, exciting entries still coming in. A good…
Fame Formula Paperback Launch
The Fame Formula Paperback launch including a showing of Nothing Sacred (U) Wednesday, 29th April, 7.30 p.m. Riverside Studios, Crisp Road, Hammersmith, London Mark Borkowski celebrates the life and work of legendary Hollywood publicist Russell Birdwell at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith on April 29th to launch the paperback of his book, The Fame Formula. A talk at 7.30 p.m. will be followed by a showing of the long-unseen Carole Lombard screwball comedy Nothing Sacred (U), which Birdwell promoted, at 7.45 p.m. Nothing Sacred is one of the great screwball comedies. Journalist Wallace Cook (Frederick March) brings Hazel Flagg (Lombard)…
The New SuperCop Steps Up
Every new head of a public institution leaps up to sit at the head of the table humming a new tune and Sir Paul Stephenson is no exception. The new ‘super-cop’ who is taking on the poisoned Commissioner for the Metropolitan Police chalice, spat in so publicly by the bumbling Sir Ian Blair, has given an inaugural press conference setting out his stall. The media takeaway is that he is no celebrity cop. Unlike his predecessor, he claims that he is going to get on with the job. There’ll be no TV appearances, just the old, traditional values of public…
The Fame Formula in The Financial Times
There’s a short review of The Fame Formula in the Financial Times on 23rd January. Stephen Cave also discusses Fame by Mark Rowlands and The Star as Icon: Celebrity in the Age of Mass Consumption by Daniel Herwitz. “It’s these myths [of the iconic early Hollywood stars] that are exploded by Mark Borkowski in his jolly romp The Fame Formula: How Hollywood’s Fixers, Fakers and Star Makers Created the Celebrity Industry.” writes Cave. “His book celebrates the publicists – the myth-makers who turned Hollywood’s patchy raw material into household names. Running his own PR firm, Borkowski has an insider’s eye, and his…
Stuntwatch: The Art of the Sickie
Stunt of the week is the Benylin website and ad campaign advising people on how to take sickies and call in sick to work under the tag line ‘Take a Benilyn Day’ – click here to see what advice they offer. There’s been quite a hoo-ha in the media about the campaign, which is completely tongue in cheek; the obviousness of this makes the CBI guy’s outrage (in the BBC News footage you can see by clicking here) hilarious – even Fiona Bruce was sniggering when she was reading it out on the BBC’s 10 O’Clock news. Great PR.
The Bollywood Fame Formula
The Fame Formula – due out in paperback in April – got a good mention in The Hindu at the end of last year, in an article on the changing nature of publicity in the Bollywood movie industry. “Public relations specialist Dale Bhagwagar believes that public relation campaigns will soon be the way that many clients will go instead of marketing and advertising, especially in the financial climate today. ‘As more and more people realise the cost-effectiveness of PR campaigns, their attention will shift from the expensive ad campaigns to PR strategies and placements.’ “But film publicists are a mysterious…
What to Read in 2009
Ruby Warrington’s guide to what’s hot in 2009, printed in the Sunday Times’ prestigious Style magazine yesterday, is replete with a plethora of interesting things to watch out for this year. As she puts it: “A new year. A whole new set of values, a new generation of icons, new pin-ups to lust after, new tunes to hum, new fitness fads to buy into, new places to escape to and new things to feed your friends. Good riddance o-eight, we’re ready to embrace the shiny new year of nine. Here are some of the things we’re most excited about.” The…
Stuntwatch Week 2
Can you feel the noise? It’s Christmas and there’s no getting away from it, given the inordinate number of Christmas-themed stunts and stories floating inescapably through the ether at the moment. Stuntwatch dons its noise reduction headphones and returns for another look at what PR stunts, dull or delirious, are tickling the media this week. The Danish trivia board game BezzerWizzer is trying to bring home the bacon in Britain by announcing the results of a poll looking for ‘the nation’s biggest know it all’. Simon Cowell has been voted into the top spot, according to the Daily Record, beating…
Stuntwatch Week One
It’s been a fascinating first week of the re-launched Stuntwatch. I first started keeping a weather eye on stunts back in 1997, long before blogging had a name, and have decided to re-launch now because of the sheer volume of PR flack currently hitting the media, from the good to the bad to the downright ugly. And, in the first week of watching alone, there have been a number of worthy news-grabbers, a few charming but failed attempts and one company who failed to make the impact they were hoping for in quite spectacular fashion. We’ve seen apes on the…
Stuntwatch for the Social Network generation
The 21st Century is a noisy old place to live, with millions of people going about their daily lives and thousands upon thousands of brands, celebrities, politicians, chancers and scoundrels trying to get some attention for whatever they are selling. And with the recession looming ever larger on the financial horizon, taking down long-standing brands like Woolies, the noise is only going to get louder and more persistent. With that in mind, I’ll be bringing you a regular update, starting this Friday, of all the stunts and wheezes that are competing in the media for your attention, the best and…
Two stunts with relish to go
I have been critical about Burger King’s PR efforts in the past, but their latest stunt, which started in Chicago and is currently working its way across America, is generating some interest from PR blogs. Burger King have been dropping wallets in the street for people to find. When opened, the wallets are found to contain a driver’s license made out to the Burger King corporation, a note saluting the finders for being good Samaritans, some cash (between $1 and $100) which they are instructed to keep, a Burger King gift voucher and a map showing the locations of Burger…
Jim Moran Lives On!
I’ve just been sent a copy of the free Belfast cultural paper, The Vacuum, which features an article on the great Jim Moran, citing The Fame Formula as the major reference. It’s good to see that, in the wake of the book’s publication, the word about some of the lost greats of the publicity world is spreading. Only nine years ago, Moran’s death was passed over unremarked in the British press; such people didn’t matter much outside America, it was presumed. But the major publicist-generated story of the day was the manufactured affair between Chris Evans and Geri Halliwell –…
The Best Gift
The Borkowski poet in residence imagines what Prince Charles would like for his birthday… I’d like tea with Lord Mountbatten I’d like a gin with dear old gran I’d like a brand new book by van der Post I’d like poetry to scan I’d like a son who didn’t dress up like Max Moseley just for fun and a chance to stop my sons’ lives from appearing in The Sun I’d like my plants to answer back for once and tell me what they feel I’d like houses built from Portland stone and not from glass and steel I’d like…
I Don’t Want a White House
The Borkowski poet in residence’s reaction to the American election. I don’t want a White House, I want a light house, a right house. I don’t want a White House, I want a beacon ‘gainst the night house. I want a dream in every heart house, a no one kept apart house. I want a truth house, a youth house, an open not uncouth house. I want a hope house, a joy house, a no lies to deploy house. I want a trust house, a just house, a proactive and robust house. I don’t want a White House, I want…
The Jonathan Ross Song
The Borkowski poet in residence’s take on Jonathan Ross’ part in the scandal currently consuming the press. Vocal rights for this podcast have been subcontracted to EDF. Jonathan Ross is, Jonathan Ross is a sacrificial lamb for the BBC bosses he may be cheeky, sweary and slick a gold plated carrot on the end of a stick but however many kids he got watching the box his stellar career is now on the rocks at least at the Beeb, where he’s put on ice for phoning up actors and not being nice but Jonathan Ross is, Jonathan Ross is perfectly…
Brand Banned
The Borkowski poet in residence reflects, in oblique headlines, on the part Russell Brand played in the affair currently consuming the front pages. Brand Banned Brand Gland Banned Brand Gland Hand Banned Brand Tanned Gland Hand Banned Brand Manned Tanned Gland Hand Banned Brand Banned Stand Brand Brand Stand By Banned Gland Brand Ban Planned By Bland Gland Brand’s Banned Gland Planned To Expand Brand Unmanned By Bland Gland Bland Gland Planned to catch Brand Strand In Hand Brand Banned Stand Brand See Bland Gland Unmanned
Maynard Nottage in the digital collective consciousness
The press release put out by Nottage’s family last week has wandered through the internet like a virulent digital contagion. From Business First of Buffalo to the Earth Times, the Houston Chronicle to the Los Angeles Times, Soapdom.com to Inbox Robot, Reuters to Marketwatch, Maynard Nottage is pretty much everywhere in America’s digital collective consciousness. I found at least eighty different links to the press release on the web. There is still no response from the Times, however. Perhaps that’s because they failed to even report the conversation they had with Nottage’s great-grandson, whose disgruntlement with this treatment lead to…
The Good Ship Obama
The Borkowski poet in residence returns with some thoughts on the upcoming American election Sarah Palin’s impaled on a world that is failin’ Joe Biden is bidin’ his time. Old John McCain strives again and again to prove the economy’s fine. Barack Obama stands taller and calmer on the shoulders of Democrats past. He seems victory-bound, this statesmanlike charmer, but how long will the honeymoon last? Obama’s getting barracked ‘bout his colour and Iraq but still he don’t notice the knocks. The average Joe’s seen the economy slow, just wants a Prez who’ll take care of his stocks. The hottest…
Nottage in the New York Post
Dustin Hoffman’s interest in playing Maynard Nottage has taken the story all over the world, from India to California. The story crops up on the Cinematical website, which says that Nottage: “lived a pretty wild life… touring with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, and enjoying the booze and the babes he encountered along the way. His partying ways caused him to fall out of favor in the moralistic Prohibition era, and he died, a Hollywood outcast, in 1965. “But as if that’s not movie-worthy enough, there’s more! Nottage’s life was largely forgotten until he became the focus of Mark Borkowski’s…
Nottage's family hire LA PR firm
In yesterday’s blog I wrote that Maynard Nottage’s family had hired PR council and were preparing a release to rebut the Times’ assertion that Nottage was a hoax. They have hired Los Angeles PR firm Jaffe & Co and the press release has now hit the internet. Click here to read more.