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.
Santa's Ruin
The great Jim Moran was offered a fine sum to take on the publicity for a toy shop in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and he at once came up with an amazing stunt to promote the store. Christmas was looming and as thousands of children were awaiting the descent of Santa down their chimneys, Moran decided to let Santa visit early via a parachute. Moran hired a B movie actor who wasn’t afraid of heights to don the parachute and simply drift down from the sky to the waiting children below who had been herded from the neighbourhood and who were…
Grey Power
The Zimmers “My Generation” Released: 28/05/07
Best PR stunt so far in Cannes
Cannes has sometimes been seen as a vehicle to gain publicity for movies that aren’t quite finished, and Cannes goers have witnessed some doozy stunts in the past. This year, Jerry Seinfeld reigned as the king of all stuntsters when he went to the top of the Carlton Hotel, dressed as a bee, to promote the upcoming “Bee Movie.” After about 30 minutes of checking his gear, Seinfeld latched himself to a wire and slid down eight stories, across the Croisette, to the beach below. Then he went back up again and came down again. Chris Rock, who voices a…
Celebrity Fashion Designers; just a tired PR stunt?
To queue or not to queue, that is the question. Recently, fashion and retail publicity, with Madonna, Kate Moss and now Lily Allen turning their hand to clothes designing, has demonstrated a real lack of imagination when launching new season’s collections. http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/organgrinder/2007/05/celebrity_fashion_designers_ju.html
Imaginary People
Delving into the lost history of publicists, I have found that there was a rather amusing trend which involved inventing individuals to stand up a story. In the 1950’s, publicists used this ploy to establish relationships or trysts with non existent folk. It seems rather strange that these individuals were never exposed as fakes, but this is because journalists needed stories so turned a blind eye to them. These imaginary creatures were usually industrialists or rich entrepreneurs who were either patrons of the arts or dating movie stars who needed more publicity. Sometime these characters grew out of all proportion…
FASHION GOES TO HEAVEN
In memory of fashion guru Isabella Blow, who died yesterday. In the afterlife the angels are shifting on their clouds and the hosts of the deceased are reassessing their shrouds. All the chubby cherubim have a glad glint in their eyes as they lift up their smocks to expose their fleshy thighs. Saint Peter’s wearing a lobster hat and a McQueen creation, Gabriel’s dressed in Gucci there’s a new sort of elation flooding through the heavenly hosts, an Elysian rosy glow, as heaven welcomes through its gates Isabella Blow. The cherubs are all wrangling to be the most like Sophie…
The Truth and Nothing but the Truth
Students of Hollywood spin should perhaps study the influence and power of Hedda Hopper. Perhaps not as potent as Louella Parsons, she certainly made her mark during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Hedda, along with Louella Parsons raised the gossip column to an art form and had the power to make or break careers. Louis Mayer helped the failed actress get the gig, which rapidly made her name as well made her enemies. Her moniker sent the publicity folk in Hollywood into apoplexy. The late Hollywood gossip columnist cut quite a swath for many years with her spy-hole journalism but…
LOVE ME OR LOATHE ME
Written after reading that Lindsay Lohan discovered she was “a highly sexual person” whilst hiding in a quiet white room for 30 days during a stay in rehab. Love me or loathe me, won’t you mentally unclothe me I’m sexual in the extreme I’m after something ecstatic but – let me make this quite emphatic – I want to be the wet dream. I want the power and bling confetti to get the whole world hot and sweaty I want people to think of me and start to steam then I want chocolates, I want flowers I want superpowers I…
African Beauty
Following on with the weird and wonderful in circus PR, I was told about a rather audacious act by the famous German publicist Wolfgang Mayer. Mr Bertram Mills, a known circus proprietor, returned from Africa in 1930 with a host of thrills and freaks for his Olympia Circus. Bertram employed Wolfgang Mayer to publicise the event as sales were sadly lacking. What this circus needed was a main attraction. Mayer put his thinking cap on and came up with the idea to find the most exotic and rare artiste that England had ever seen. She came in the form of…
LORD LAIDLAW LAID LOW
Millionaire Conservative donor Lord Laidlaw has declined to set a date when he will end his tax exile and failed to comply with a condition for a peerage set three years ago. The Borkowski poet in residence took this as a perfect opportunity for a tongue twister… Lord Laidlaw paid for a peerage it appears but Lord Laidlaw’s made sure his tax bill disappears. To Lord Laidlaw radar is something to duck under. Lord Laidlaw’s strayed far with his tax free plunder. Lord Laidlaw’s made for Monaco with his money. Lord Laidlaw’s swayed more by being somewhere sunny. Lord Laidlaw’s…
IF WILLIAM HAD MARRIED KATE MIDDLETON
“Caring Kate Middleton acted like a new mum to Prince William…” The Sun, Monday, April 16 If William had married Kate Middleton he’d have made a ghastly error, akin to fighting fire with fire as in the war on terror, a repetition of the worst traits any royal family possesses like dressing up as Nazis or wearing women’s dresses or actually supporting Hitler or sleeping with your horse or calling Chinese “slitty eyed” or serial divorce or sucking Texan oilmen’s toes or writing helicopter books or sleeping with the servants or conducting telephone sex or starting wars around the world…
A final word on Iranian hostage debate?
At the height of Vietnam, pretty much all a war correspondent in search of a story had to do was hop on a chopper, land in the middle of the war zone and find a story to file – and they were usually pretty quick in coming. Access was free and easy and the relationship between army and media was more akin to a wary “us and them” relationship. All this changed in the wake of the Falklands conflict and the Gulf War. In these conflicts, a brave new world was brought about, one of embedded journalists and strictly controlled…