Comments on: Celebrity and the Dying Art of Debate

By: Mark Borkowski

Mark Borkowski — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 13:25:12 +0000

@marlena – thanks for the response. It would have been helpful to see and hear the critical opinion from the floor – you and your fellow students are better placed to give people already in the industry a run for our money. Frustration is all very well, but a dominant personality shouldn’t stop one from venting it constructively and passionately. As the next generation of the industry, you have everything to gain from tearing us down – if you can.

By: Clare Macnaughton

Clare Macnaughton — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 20:28:33 +0000

You need to visit http://www.arrse.co.uk (the Army Rumour Service) there are lot of angry, debating folk over there. Election fever is upon us – let’s get the debate started. Maybe it’ll bring out some leadership from the political parties – we need a leader to aid recovery and quite frankly we are heading for a hung parliament if the parties don’t raise their game and stop sitting on the fence!!

Let the debate commence.

By: marianne

marianne — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 09:47:03 +0000

i’m afraid I have no sympathy for the two of you…………those who are prepared to share a stage with this low-life max clifford don’t deserve to be heard. after all, WHO IS THE GUY ??????? A CRIMINAL WHO HAS THE CHEEK TO BOAST ABOUT HIS PROTECTING CRIMINALS AND ABUSING PEOPLE’S MISFORTUNE……FROM WHICH THIS CORRUPT SOCIETY OF OURS IS ENABLING HIM TO MAKE A LOT OF MONEY.

MY ADVICE: REFUSE TO SIT ON ANY PANEL/DEBATE WHERE ABNOXIOUS CLIFFORD IS INVITED TO, AND YOU’LL SEE, HE WILL VERY QUICKLY SUBMERGE INTO THE MUD/FILTH WHERE HE BELONGS……….

DON’T JUST MOAN……….DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT…………..

By: Marlena

Marlena — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 00:10:48 +0000

I agree with you, the debate was a joke and Max Clifford made his own little publicity event out of it. Unfortunatly he dominated the panel and no one really could be bothered to argue with him. I understand that you were disappointed by the floor`s questions, however, I think a lot of us were just frustrated at this point. Max Clifford killed of almost every question with the “anecdotes” you described, no decent discussion can evoke from that. Being one of those “bright young things who want to be in PR”, I can assure you that we are well aware of the topic and we are all in possession of a critical opinion. We were all disappointed by the way the debate went because our expectations had been high.
What the organisers can learn from this in terms of future debates is to stop inviting dominant personalities like Max Clifford who only use plattforms like this to brag about themselves and also to narrow the number of attendants further down so that a real discussion can emerge.

In my opinion, the celebrity phenomenon has reached its peak. Celebrities already start to devaluate, precisely because of the high coverage they get, they are ubiquitous. People will get used to having them around until the point where they won`t be special anymore (because most celebs today are just famous for being famous) and the public will lose its interest in them. New communication tools like Twitter or the countless celebrity blogs only accelerate this process.
Maybe the media – which is already facing decreasing circualtion – will then once more value those who actually “contribute something of worth to society”.