The chaos caused by the tube strike should have inspired a creative opportunity for industrial relations innovation, as well as a PR coup. Once again, lurid headlines condemning the union leaders who had organised the strike did little to communicate the issues and the heart of the dispute. In general, the Great British unwashed have…
From the Scotsman 1st September 2007 Last night, Brian Belo was voted this year’s winner. The 20-year-old data clerk, who claimed he had no idea who Shakespeare was, pipped the favourites, twins Sam and Amanda Marchant, 19, to claim the £100,000 winner’s cheque. Mark Borkowski, a PR adviser, said the show had proven effective in…
I joined (late) a motley crew of bloggers who had decamped to a North London eatery the other night, gathered together by “Don’t Panic” to twitter on the subject of social networking. The posse included Stuart Bruce – Wolfstar http://www.stuartbruce.biz/ Simon Collister – Edelman http://simoncollister.typepad.com/ Stephen Davies – Webitpr http://www.prblogger.com/ Ian Delaney – NMK http://twopointouch.com/…
Its not often that praise is handed out in the notoriously bitchy world of PR, but I was pleased to see read this blog today paying tribute to our Wispa campaign http://t4w.blogs.com/spinningaround/2007/08/hats-off-the-wi.html. Thanks to James Gordon-MacIntosh of Seventy Seven. James has often encouraged me to sit on panels and talk about my work and I…
Unbelievably the “wrinklies” public image has had a face lift this morning across the media. Usually it’s a hopeless task for poor PR folk who are heroically attempting to peddle the joys of the over 60’s. Valiant attempts to sell old age often stumble chiefly because of the media’s obsession to remain attractive to the…
I have received a flurry of emails from fellow PR friends and journalists who have realised that Borkowski is behind the relaunch of Wispa. Many erroneously think we created an online campaign to bring back Wispa. We designed a press campaign informed by the amount of on line pressure groups that had been running for…
More or less every time I sit down with a journalist these days, I hear about some more appalling PR conduct. The problem with the PR industry is that it’s unregulated, so anyone who can afford a website or a business card can set themselves up as a PR agency. That said, there are a…
The moving speech made yesterday by the grieving Barbara Reid on the second day of the inquest into the death of her son Jessie James, touched me. Jessie was a boy who clearly did not want to get caught up with the local street gang culture, and it seems that he was murdered for rejecting…
The last few days have seen the broad sheets chattering over the growth of Facebook and its ability to become one of the most astounding of the web 2 offerings. This development has been driven by an extremely clever and one can argue, compelling publicity stunt. All new web platforms face the problem of sustaining…
I am often sent PR disaster tales this one from New Zealand, underlines the danger of staging a stunt without realising the risks. I am sure that it was a great success on the day, alas there is usually a huge hangover after the best party. The Warehouse, New Zealand’s largest general merchandise retailer, says it…