Which? PR takes journalists for a ride

A press release from Which? that accuses car dealers of “taking customers for a ride” appears to do the same to journalists as it is hard to spot any real news or valid research here. This is pure press agentry – which reflects that Which? is really promoting sales of its magazine with this story [...]

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Celebs don’t need PR on Twitter

“My name is Heather and I’m addicted to following celebrities on Twitter”.  What a confession! I’ve had a Twitter account for some time – http://twitter.com/greenbanana – and finally decided to begin to Tweet (much to Judy Gombita‘s amusement  – okay, I’m also a hypocrite).  My motivation was a conversation with a couple of students on [...]

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Who owns the BBC’s reputation?

The BBC’s decision to not broadcast the DEC charitable appeal for aid for Gaza is said by Mark Thompson, director general, to be about protecting its reputation for impartiality. Thompson has communicated the decision to staff, whilst an increasing list of celebrities are publicly critical.  Politicians and plenty of other stakeholders have become active publics [...]

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Jobs are made redundant, not people

It is pretty tough to lose your job, without carrying a label of being “redundant” – so shouldn’t PR practitioners involved in writing press releases announcing such bad news state that jobs are made redundant, not people? The Telegraph wasn’t alone in reporting: A record number of people are being made redundant in Britain as [...]

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A PR campaign too far?

Last week, seven members of Stop Huntington Animal Cruelty (SHAC) were jailed for undertaking a blackmail campaign against suppliers of the Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) in Cambridgeshire. This campaign has been labelled as eco- or urban terrorism owing to the personal and violent nature of attacks on executives within HLS and its stakeholders (investors as [...]

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How do we help those new to social media?

Stuart Bruce asks whether “trade associations get social media“, which I think has linkage to the recent postings about becoming a social media expert.  It is both ambitious and laudable to put together advice, such as the updated CIPR social media guidelines – however, it is impossible to cover all the eventualities that need to [...]

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Little Chef – big PR mistake

Back in December 2006, I asked “Could public relations could save Little Chef?” – after watching last night’s Channel 4 programme Big Chef takes on Little Chef, the answer is no. Like celebrity chef, Heston Blumenthal, brought in to design a new menu, for me, the Little Chef brand is a faded childhood memory. My [...]

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Now everybody knows your name

Less than a year ago, the name Barack Obama was new to most people around the world, but today, it will be on the lips of a large percentage of the global population. I was born in the same year, 1961, and cannot imagine either wanting the top job in the US or ever having [...]

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360 degree learning

Bill Sledzik reminds us of how social media can be used to ridicule rather than support those who may know less than we do.  I often wonder why people would be rude to others using a public medium and whether this is better than talking about someone behind their back. In general, I believe in [...]

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The evolving world of work

I’ve just been asked to amend a job title for a vacancy at the MIPAA JobSearch site to Press and Communications Executive (previously the title was media relations executive).  This isn’t a case of “job title inflation” (which I wrote about last April at PR Conversations), which apparently becomes more common during tougher times, when [...]

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