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…