Food for thought

March 30th, 2010
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Apparently Jamie Oliver’s school dinners are making children cleverer. Since the introduction of his nutritious meals, SATs results have dramatically improved. Perhaps there’s a scientific reason, or maybe kids are being spurned on by the ever more infrequent reward of chocolate for doing well.

Oliver’s scheme may be making kids healthier, but the media don’t seem to like his “I was right all along” stance.

In fact school dinners are certainly on the media menu today as they also report on fingerprint scanners being introduced in a school in Brent, North London to substitute cash in canteens.

Although mother’s can watch what their kids are eating this way, danger surely looms. As a child, I was constantly worried about the infamous demand of ‘Give me your dinner money.’ Well imagine if a surly bully forced you to give him your thumb.

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For Blog’s Sake!

March 29th, 2010
pope

Some think of blogging as something celebs do to keep their name in the mix, aspiring journalists to get their name known or disgruntled employees to whinge about their bosses. After all, who knew of Belle du Jour before she started her saucy blog? Other than her clients i mean.

How things have changed. Today a blog can be anything from a brand exchanging views with its customers to the holiest man on the planet using the platform to spread the word God.

While not run by Pope Benedict himself, his blog has been delegated to younger aides, just like overseeing the spirituality of the Earth has been handed down by God to the Pope which, to be fair is close enough for me.

The 82 year old Pope seems to have accepted that the church needs to move on in the modern world and i have to applaud him for encouraging his priest’s to embrace the world of digital media.

“Priests are thus challenged to proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources — images, videos, animated features, blogs, websites — which, alongside traditional means, can open up broad new vistas for dialogue, evangelization and catechesis,” he said.

That’s not to say that all of a sudden your local priest is going to become a cool media savvy social celebrity, but as our culture changes, the church has become aware of the need to use the latest technologies to its advantage, especially if it wants to reach younger people.

So, as somebody who is increasingly becoming immersed in the social and digital media space, i think “Good on you Pope Benedict!” You`re 82 years old and giving the world of cyberspace some soul. I’m feeling in very good company as i sit here blogging away.

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A Grand Day Out

March 29th, 2010
Duerr's Jam and marmalade

At Democracy, we love our clients, and the passion we feel for them is infectious. So much so, that when a friend of the agency spotted Manchester Marmalade on sale down south (!) they couldn’t resist buying a jar and taking it on an adventure.

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Twestival 2010

March 26th, 2010
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A year has passed since the first Twestival in Manchester, and although I’m sure you’ll hear much about the money that was raised for @concern and the great work it will do, I wanted to highlight how much things have changed.

In 2009 Twitter was for those who wanted to share and embrace ideas, ask for help or off load their frustrations about the projects they were working on, it was real people sharing real things in a virtual world.  Twestival brought these people together and virtual relationships were cemented in real life. Many of the PR and media types were only just beginning to take the social media space seriously and a few uninitiated PR and marketing types hovered around the edges like fish out of water. (classical example, one PR agency put forwards a gadget as an auction prize that wasn’t MAC compatible – eek(!))

A year on, and we’re in HulaBar – the place is bustling as virtual relationships are cemented into real life. But the question is . . . . where are the Twitter fans of old? The event was full of PR people who are now firmly planted in the Twitter culture. I was asked by an interviewer my twitter name, why i use Twitter and my favourite celeb to follow – after admitting celeb followings isn’t really my thing the girl seemed to be at a loss.

I couldn’t help but think that the place I should have been was over in Madlab, where all the interesting people had got together to talk emerging digital, what’s new and how the landscape is changing.

The Madlab is a community space for people who want to do and make interesting stuff – a place for geeks, artists, designers, illustrators, hackers, tinkerers, innovators and idle dreamers; an autonomous R&D laboratory and a release valve for Manchester’s creative communities.

It’s here where PR and social media people need to be paying attention. It’s here where we’ll understand about what happens after Twitter. It’s here where we’ll learn.

So, I was asked at the event which person I’d recommend to follow this Friday – on reflection I change my answer to this follow @Madlab.

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Scruffs Workwear appears in The Sun again

March 22nd, 2010
MH-the-sun

We’ve secured another great result for our newest client Scruffs Workwear as revealed that more than half of all tradesman get jiggy on the job once every year.

Ladies – if you’re looking for some at home action, we suggest you avoid the Gardener, as the research indicated he’s the most likely to kiss and tell!

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Hail glorious St Patrick

March 17th, 2010
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For those of you who are unaware of my Irish roots I have hidden from you a large part of my heritage. I love the music, the community – and  yes, if I must use the word, the craic.

In honour of the day, the papers covered the story that Sir Terry Wogan has been voted the coolest Irish celeb by the British public. Well isn’t that just glorious. Tezza with his TOGs and legendary Eurovision contributions has long been an ambassador for the Emerald Isle and one that the Irish and the English both have a fondness for.

However, as I look down the list, alarm bells start ringing. Hollywood stars Brosnan and Farrell take second and third place, followed by Christine Bleakley of the One Show and Andrea Corr. Finally, in the tenth spot is XFactor rejects Jedward? REALLY?!.

Well, in honour of St Patrick, I though perhaps I’d share with you some of my favourite musical cool list – some of them born in Ireland, others with Irish roots, all of them with strong links to Manchester that I’ve had the opportunity to play/listen to (PS – and I play v badly). So that if they are ever asked the question again, the people of Britain have something useful to say.

Correct answers would be: flute player Micheal McGoldrick, fiddle player Dezi Donnelly, bodhran player John Jo Kelly whistle and fiddle player Grace Kelly, banjo player Eamonn Coyne.

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Baby Lotto

March 16th, 2010
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Working for a client who produces baby food – means that we’re always on the look out for baby related strories and initiatives that might be a media opportunity for the BabyDeli brand. Childhood obesity usually tops the list, but this week it was the launch of a Baby Lottery that caught our attention.

A human egg is being given away this week to a woman plucked from the audience at a fertility seminar. The ‘lottery’ winner is to receive £13,000 worth of IVF treatment and is set to link US based IVF clinics and British clinics in an order to sidestep strict UK payment and guidance laws.

Anti-IVF payment for profit regulations mean a British donor can expect to get £250 for her eggs and supplies are drying up. US donors however are paid up to £6,000 a time and therefore, unsurprisingly, up to 500 students a month donate eggs in order to help pay for their education.

Consultants at the London Bridge Centre and IVF Institute in Fairfax, Virginia, are hoping Wednesday’s event will start a transatlantic trade to help with the lack of donors in England and believe that this lottery style event will attract people as it does in consumer driven America.

This randomly picked winner will not only get the egg but will be able to leaf through profiles of donors, who are generally pretty, university educated young women and then choose who they would like to donate an egg to them.

It’s apparent that there is a need to increase the number of eggs donated in Britain, but creating a “win a baby” competition can’t be the way.

As a PR professional operating in the baby market, I understand that organisations have a responsibility to market their products in the right way. As a woman I can understand the desperation couples feel when they want a child and simply can’t have one. As an auntie i understand the joy that a little girl or boy brings to a family. But as a human being, i can only ask the question . . .  How do you tell a child that he/she was the prize in a lucky dip?

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It’ll only takes a minute, girl…

March 11th, 2010
Mark Owen and his missus

Today, The Sun sensationally broke the news that Mark Owen, yes he – the baby-faced, pint-sized popstar of “man band” Take That fame – has admitted to having affairs with up to ten women. Over the past couple of months, the tabloids’ front pages have been plagued by cheating male stars who have misrepresented themselves as family men or devoted hubbies.

They have been banished to their own special (and, currently, well-populated) level in media hell, and a recurring comment is how these privileged, young men are so devoid of morality and scruples.

But is the number of adulterous male celebrities really that out of proportion with the overall number of cheating men – and women? I, for one, think not. The Monogamy Myth, written by Peggy Vaughan, suggests that 60% of husbands and 40% of wives will have an affair at some point in their marriage.

The same month that one famous celebrity is publically outed for his indiscretions, several others are happily pictured in glossy magazines or on TV screens waxing lyrical about their personal domestic bliss.

Maybe I’m just a naive sentimentalist at heart, but whilst the motivation of their public declarations of undying love may originate more from their back pocket than their front ones, I’m inclined to believe that at least the sentiment is (somewhat) true. For every yin, there is a yang; for every exception, there is a rule – and for every Mark Owen, there is a Gary Barlow.

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Yesterday’s Daily Mail; what follows will sicken Facebook fans

March 11th, 2010
panic

If I’m honest I didn’t bat an eyelid when I read the Mail’s article yesterday morning entitled “I posed as a girl of 14 on Facebook. What followed will sicken you”.

We’ve blogged in the past about the popular press’ general negative mood around social networking sites and pointed out that people who are going to commit awful crimes have always found a way to do so.

It would seem now though that those sites are ready to take a stand. Facebook is used as an easy catch all term to whip up an aura of fear amongst parents about what their kids are up to online; in the case of The Mail’s article yesterday the journalist wasn’t even referring to Facebook and an over-zealous sub-editor had selected the network for the headline.

Facebook is taking admirable measures to safeguard its younger members who are undoubtedly much safer there than in some unmoderated forum. It’s definitely important for parents to be aware of what their children are up to online but it’s equally important that the press act responsibly in their portrayal of the online world.

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Gossip Girl in Cyberspace

March 11th, 2010
baguette

Once again, another relationship has been targeted and is being carefully scrutinized by the gossipmongers of cyberspace. It doesn’t seem that a day goes by without another celebrity couple being unfaithful to their partner. This time it is the turn of France’s flamboyant, diminutive President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni.

According to rumours, Carla Bruni is having a passionate relationship with a French musician and Nicolas Sarkozy is enjoying a relationship with his Ecology minister. Well, at least the rumour this time is that both parties are having illegitimate affairs which makes a change from the usual footballer and WAG scenario!  Unsurprisingly, Sarcozy has refused to confirm or deny the rumours, but the simple fact that the rumours have become so widespread has given the story credibility.

Rumours began on Twitter before gathering momentum on more mainstream media sites, which  makes me wonder about the power of ‘Chinese whispers’ on Twitter and other sites and how quickly they can make or break the reputation of a couple, brand or business.

Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni aren’t the first and they won’t be the last couple that have to face seeing their relationship scrutinized thanks to some unfortunate remarks on Twitter or Facebook. We all know somebody who’s had a real world fall out following a thoughtless online comment.

In the 21st Century, the pen truly is mightier than the sword – which makes taking care of your reputation the holy grail of the modern day world.

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