The textbook definition of good public relations is the managing of internal and external communication to create and maintain a positive image.

So it is no surprise that the able and excellent corporate PR team at ITV used every trick in the book yesterday to downplay news of the record £5.675m Ofcom fine for its phone in scandal. And the sacrificial cow was the British Comedy Awards.

When ITV issued its press release responding to the Ofcom fine, tucked away at the bottom was the findings of the Olswang inquiry into irregularities in the people’s choice award vote for the 2005 BCA event.

Bingo! The sexy names of those involved - Catherine Tate, Ant and Dec, Robbie Williams - deflected attention from the bigger story. And how - today the Sun, Daily Mirror, Daily Express and Guardian all ran a picture of Ant, Dec and Robbie from the 2005 BCA event. The Times went with a Tate pic.

I have nothing but praise for the ingenuity employed in attempting to avert this hostile media issue. But I also have to declare an interest in this story as I represented the British Comedy Awards last year when ITV decided not to broadcast the 2008 event while it investigated problems with the 2005 people’s choice vote.

Now as a humble media observer, I marvel at the shameless chutzpah that the ITV PR team has employed to try to take the sting out of the big story before it thrashed the broadcaster’s reputation.

In our celebrity driven times, this was a wonderful piece of flack, serving up a full fat menu of entertainment names.

BCA producer Michael Hurll Television questioned the timing of the release of the Olswang report in its own response to the document’s publication yesterday. MHTV director Paul Pascoe said: “I’m really surprised to see speculation dressed up as fact, ant that it’s taken eight months from when Olswang were first appointed to come out with a report that takes us no further forward.”

However, as any good spinmeister knows, if it is not imperative to release information, it might be useful as collateral later on in the news cycle to refocus a probing journalist’s eye.

Its seems that a lot of people missed the point of my blog on  Media Guardian..

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/organgrinder/2008/05/the_textbook_definition_of_goo.html

My ramblings about Hello found their way into today’s Independent feature about the magazine

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/hello-magazine-celebrates-its-20th-birthday-824252.html

I smell an ambitious new brand, hungry for attention - step forward FpsBrain.  A number of blogs have noticed with a mix of amusement and depression that this brand will do anything to get noticed. Great stunts should never be seen and the slight of hand is crucial when trying to use this form of publicity to leverage attention.

The wheezing PR campaign for FpsBrain rams it up the arse with claims that firstly, the drink can increase your mental powers for gaming performance, and now, that it’s actually supporting Tibet by not being produced in China. Come on people, you are trying too hard. It’s a competitive market - do something more creative. Perhaps after seeing Derren Brown’s brilliant show at the Garrick last night, the German drink peddlers should pay him to endorse their mixture. I like him. I defended his gun stunt in the Guardian a few years back. http://www.markborkowski.com/?p=6249

 I believe Brown could persuade anybody to chuck the drink down throats. I mused at the after show piss up   to a producer pal that Derren Brown could be the one showman right now to storm the US. But it seems that he wants to be a big fish in a small pond. I have not seen such outstanding showmanship on stage for years. He makes Blaine and Copperfield look like Gordon Brown at the dispatch box. Unlike Blaine, I suspect he does not have the killer instinct and appetite for this sort of intrusive infamy that comes from global fame.

Had great fun last night at the SHAFTAs http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/may/07/dailystar.dailystarsunday?gusrc=rss&feed=media . What a night!

I have just been sent this release about a solo show by artist activists the “Vacuum Cleaner”.  The group plans to sell £14,040 of Coke, Heroin and Hash as part of a gallery show.  What a wonderful idea. Contemporary art is reaching new heights, mixing a PR stunt with art.  Is it a wind up?  I really don’t care, but I know where I’d like to be on Friday evening.

.

Get Ta Suck

A solo show by artist activist’s the vacuum cleaner.

Preview 09.05.08
7-9.30 pm
Exhibition runs 10.05.08 – 18.05.08
Weds-Sun 12-6pm

+44 141
SWG3
100 Eastvale Place
G3 8QG

Artist to sell £14,040 of drugs in Glasgow Gallery

Glasgow based artist activist ‘the vacuum cleaner’ are planning to sell £14,040 of Coke, Smack and Soap Bar (Hash) as part of a gallery show at the Studio Warehouse, Glasgow.

The piece titled Smack, Soap Bar, Coke is one of a series of new works to be included in the groups first solo gallery show. The ‘enfants terrible’ of the Glasgow art scene will also be including some of their most controversial existing works; including The Ultimate Television Commercial, a remix of the Paris Hilton Sex Tape, Deep Throat and Coke bottles, the video hasn’t been seen since it was band from most of the internet last year. 
The collective describe their work as art activism, or ‘Brandalism, Subvertising, Hackivism and generally being a nuisance to those in power.’ The untrained artists, who have worked out of the Studio Warehouse since relocating to Glasgow two and a half years ago, have also worked in the mainstream. This year alone they have made works and commissions for the Turbine Hall of Tate Modern, Museum of Contemporary Art, Geneva, Glasgow Art Fair and Tramway. Documentation of this work will also appear.

“Playing in the art world is something we’re very conscious of, we don’t want to exist in an activist ghetto, but then we’re also aware of the limitations of the art world. But the great thing about doing the show at SWG3, is they’ve never said no to anything we’ve suggested. ” Said Dick Dastardly, spokesperson for the group.

The group became notorious in 2004 when they launched the website wwww.starbuckscoffee.co.uk which featured the Starbucks Mermaid logo with letters being removed until it said “fuck off”. Starbucks forced the closure of the domain, but the group simple moved to the site to www.starbuckscoffee.org.uk, where it remains.
Most purchasable works will be sold on a ‘Pay What You Think It’s Worth’ basis; works will include a reserve to cover costs.

www.vacuum.org.uk
www.swg3.tv
work@swg3.tv

On the eve of the crucial primaries this weekend in North Carolina and Indiana, Hilary Clinton’s PR team landed a killer blow. Hillary appeared via satellite on the late Show with David Letterman where he showed her funny funky side. The comic hook was that she read the shows infamous top ten list. The list being a sickly Top Ten Reasons Why Hillary Clinton Loves America - pure genius! After a faltering start in the PR stakes, it looks as if Hillary Clinton is closing the gap since her campaign-saving victory in Pennsylvania last week. Aided also by the controversies dogging Obama, which were fuelled, I suspect, by some smart dark pollsters… If she has really overtaken the smooth and compelling Obama, it goes to prove that with a well equipped team that understands the media touch points, on and off line, all is never lost. I think her smart blog which is a call to arms for all her supporters is a great tool. Her opponent’s online efforts seem to be far from dynamic.

The resourcefulness of the tobacco giants in the 1900’s and their alacrity to find new audiences is sometimes astounding.  In order to influence women in the pleasures of the tobacco leaf, way back at the turn of the 20th century, the large tobacco companies actually targeted the suffragette movement, encouraging them to smoke in public, a pursuit which was a social taboo at the time. 

Soon after that, women were again a main focus and cigarettes were advertised as slimming aids, helping women to stave off those hunger pangs and stay beautiful and slim.  In the 1920’s when smoking in public was no longer daring, one tobacco giant moved into the fashion world to promote the pleasures of smoking to women. 

A clothes designer was hired to create a smoking suit especially for women to make them feel just as important as their male counterparts.  The lengths to which tobacco companies would go increased as the years went on, and saw one company sponsoring a ladies swimming race in 1927, claiming smoking gave you energy and kept you warm.

These days it’s common place to see wags in provocative clothing, short skirts and low cut tops. They are just various no names who try to attract attention by means of their dress, and whose ends are usually as an MTV reality TV host.

In 1922, an English publicist St. John Morton was involved in one of the earliest attempts at getting the media of the day to pay attention to a woman because of her dress. Dolores Denis Denison arrived at the prestigious private view of the King Tut Exhibition, desperate to gain entry, dressed as an Egyptian mummy. This one was in a long line of stunts that she pulled with her publicist St. John Morton.

It is known that she did manage to get into the exclusive private view, but no one knows who long she stayed and whether her attire was considered terribly bad taste or not.

Chelsea’s heroic win to get through to The Champions League final was fantastic to watch last night. The usual post match PR obligation however, proved yet again that Avram Grant fails to deliver to the media. His lack of charisma and inability to project his personality or provide incisive sound bites will create further speculation from the media that no matter how successful he is, the sword of Damacles is hanging over his head.

The intensity of media coverage of the sport is higher than it ever has been and the media needs interesting characters who can communicate. I suspect most of the TV media that follow this global game are praying that Grant will be axed because he doesn’t deliver the televisual moments that excite the audience and the over paid pundits. Surely it’s not beyond someone’s power to take the manager and turn this ugly frog into a communications Prince? I’m sure he’s a very nice guy, but if he could only master the ability to be a perfect media subject, the back and front pages would create the momentum of support that he needs to stay in the job.