Home Secretary discovers how not to use quotable quotes January 22, 2008
Posted by paulprdixon in : Media Focus, PR in the UK , add a commentFear and kebabs on the streets of Peckham, a deprived area of south London, was the message that came out from Jacqui Smith earlier this week – not the best communications from a Home Secretary tasked with sorting out the hoody-hoodlums reaping havoc, and even death, on Britain’s streets.
Jacqui Smith - From Blair’s Babe to Brown’s Trumpet
Being brought up in Stockport I know all about the hoodies. During Christmas, the local Conservative (Liberal Democrats hold Stockport) opposition described the passageway from the train station to the A6 as: “A canyon of despair”, a decent quotable quote for the local papers to feed off – which they did.
The quotable quote - of the self-destructive kind - Jacqui Smith let slip in an interview with Isabel Oakeshott, Deputy Political Editor for the Sunday Times, read: “I won’t walk down a street alone at night”; the headline reading exactly the same as the quote.
But the situation was to worsen for the Home Secretary. Hours after the interview, realising Smith had just loaded a powerful firearm – with NEWS CORP delicately engraved into its sides - office aides initiated a desperate spin operation with claims that her words did not come out as intended. The aide then attempted to rebut Smith’s assertion by claiming that she had recently “bought a kebab in Peckham”; music to a smiling Oakeshott’s ears, she duly included this desperate attempt in her article.
The Jacqui Smith debacle is completed with a week that has begun with some serious negative coverage on the blogs (mine), in the magazines and published in the newspapers. The Spectator says, “Our defeatist Home Secretary”; the Guardian leads how I lead: “Fear and kebabs on the streets of Peckham”.
You do have to wonder why she took this pre-arranged interview in the first place. A quick Google search reveals a website which tracks the stories UK journalists are writing – and it seems Isabel Oakeshott hasn’t written a positive piece for quite some time. If the interview had to go ahead, then her communications aides – who haven’t exactly proved their value throughout this debacle – are also, like Smith, in need of some media training in 2008.
Scouts: We’re PRepared January 14, 2008
Posted by paulprdixon in : PR in the UK, PRandom , 2commentsThis week my “Public Relations” Google alert set alight in a way Baden Powell could have never foreseen when he decided that making fire with kindling best prepares a boy for a man’s life.
From the broadsheets (UK’s Daily Telegraph) to the red-tops (UK’s Mirror Newspaper), and doing the rounds on the blogs, the Scout Association has scored some substantial media coverage through announcing a new “PR Badge”. The new PR award is one of 42 unveiled in a major update of the Association’s merit badges.
The Scout’s New Chief Spokesboy
The Telegraph calls them “Woggle-wearing spin-doctors”; the Mirror sees it as “only fair to warn you not to panic when you first see one {a Boy Scout} wearing a PR Badge - a profession well-known for spinning the truth.”
But I am sure the Scout Association will settle for bit of tongue-in-cheek from the media when its key messages came through so clearly (and with the images of the new badges). We now know that – amongst 200 badges - Scout’s will also be able to earn badges in skateboarding, BMXing and rollerblading. We were reminded that the movement last year celebrated its centenary when 40,000 scouts from around the world joined a massive jamboree in the
UK. And we were informed that “Scouting is more relevant today than it ever has been over the last 100 years because it gives young people the opportunity to experience things they otherwise would not have the opportunity to do.”
As a former Scout – and now working in PR – it would be nice to roll back the years and earn my PR badge. But that’s not say I didn’t appreciate learning how to chop wood and tie a sheepshank. I was happy to read yet another key message come through in the media: “Purists have not been forgotten with new badges for Map Reading, Hiking and Emergency Aid.”
Let’s hope this jamboree of press coverage helps fuel the on-going resurgence in Scouting. We might also see a few more men working in the industry in the years that come.
Brown got Carter, I got to learn about FPR January 11, 2008
Posted by paulprdixon in : Career Focus, Media Focus, PR in the UK, PRandom , add a commentYou know what it was like when you learnt to drive. Fellow learners were suddenly everywhere, often to your annoyance in flashier, faster cars than the aptly named 0-60 in 60 seconds Nissan Micra you somehow got lumbered with. At least that’s what happened with me. And it’s the same with PR – you begin working with a new client, and then, out of the blue, there is the client’s logo, the client’s product, as you go about your life outside the office. It’s relentless and is only replaced when you start, as I like to say, ‘entering the zone’, with the next client.
Over a festive dinner with my twin sister and her fiancée the seeds were planted for a similar experience. They told me their friend works in Brunswick’s New York office and would be interested in hearing about my life in Beijing. I had never heard of Brunswick. At that point I was dying to get onto Google and begin delving into a corner of the PR world I had yet to enter: Financial PR.
So I did. But not before I came back to Beijing last week – adhering to a rule I set for my own ‘12 days of Christmas’ back in the UK: No ‘electronic’ information. For 12 days I was all about the British newspapers – in print. And it felt great, washing the ink off the tips of my fingers after my early morning read, and walk with the dog to the local newsagent, was, weirdly, a joy.
Being back in Beijing means I am more likely to have sore eyes rather than darkened finger tips; my eyes are already glued to blogs, vlogs, wikis and of course the on-line editions of the same British newspapers I read during my 12 days of Christmas back in the UK.
Before I even had the chance to Google Brunswick, the name was already appearing thanks to Gordon Brown appointing Brunswick’s now former Chief Executive, Stephen Carter, as his new ‘Chief advisor chief of strategy and principal adviser to the Prime Minister’, i.e. Spinbuster. And I have since learnt that Brunswick’s founder, Alan Parker - described as the ‘great conduit’ between Whitehall and the City - played a pivotal role in developing the financial PR industry into what we see today.
Brown watched Get Carter on Boxing Day
I hope in 2008 I will continue to learn more about PR through being inquisitive and curious about the PR world outside of my client work. Though I am not that sad, being able to return home on a wintry Beijing evening without seeing a client’s advertisement pasted in my apartment building’s elevator, as is the case now, would be nice…