In any move to war we get bludgeoned with the inevitable metaphors of motion. Whether it’s a strategic progression or headlong rush, a targeted advancement or mission creep, there is no turning back from the march of predictable language. Interestingly, in his seminal manual on how to hack our psyche’s mainframe Edward Bernays also captures…
Prince Harry is the ultimate recruitment poster boy for the Call of Duty generation. As a soldier Prince, he is in his element: today’s media is plastered with pictures of him in subtle battle dress, poses framed by an apache helicopter gunship, underlining his sense of purpose and presenting him in hero-like dimensions. From Las…
As the bombs rain down on Libya, there are already people looking beyond the images of the destruction wreaked who are eager to get in to the country, post-conflict. Big PR will be planning already how to own the hearts and minds of the world with regards to Libya. There will be lots of meetings,…
If any politician was going to pull off the greatest stunt of a generation, it really had to be Tony Blair. And, by committing all the proceeds from his memoirs (as well as the £4 million advance) to the Royal British Legion’s Battle Back challenge centre, a project that will provide state-of-the-art rehabilitation services for…
The confidence and utter belief in the State of Israel the Israeli government have displayed, as they justify their violent attack on the ships attempting to bring aid to Gaza, is breathtaking. Both factions in any war tend towards insanity of some sort, but Israel organise theirs with terrifying rigour. They have an enormous number…
Listening to Mark Thompson on this morning’s Today programme, justifying the corporation’s decision not to allow the broadcast of an appeal on behalf of the Disasters Emergency Committee for Gaza, I was distressed. The thrust of his argument was that he didn’t want the BBC’s impartiality being damaged. I am not sure about the semantics…
http://www.drudgereport.com for updates (c)DRUDGE REPORT 2004 Since the end of the Vietnam War successive American presidents have worried that their military actions would lose support once the public glimpsed the remains of U.S. soldiers arriving back at air bases in flag-draped caskets. To this problem, the Bush administration has found a simple solution: it has…
War – for the public and people in the firing line – is about death, destruction, terror and violence. For certain sectors of the PR community, it’s a business opportunity. Ask those US PRs who were paid in oil for the counsel they gave Sadaam over the years; or those who constructed the “babies ripped…