Sun in blogger shock

June 17th, 2010
world cup ball

This week The Sun has been giving a crash course in how not to engage the blogging community. In executing a perfectly good idea they’ve managed to annoy some respected bloggers and make themselves the poster boys for bad blog campaigns.

A perfectly harmless football sweepstake idea to promote their new sweepstake app went a little bit wrong when they didn’t get permission from the bloggers concerned to use their sites.

They did ask, but just didn’t manage to pay attention when the replies were a firm no, or nothing at all. One blog had been inactive for over a year.

The fact that this story has spread through the tech and media community at speed illustrates the keen interest in all things blog and reflect a widespread unease about how to deal with the blogger.

Actually the truth is that bloggers are both journalists (of a sort) and real people. Offer them something they’re interested in (in our case anything from baby food to Jack Daniel’s Barbecue Sauce) and treat them like people and you’ll find that ‘the blogosphere’ isn’t really that hard to work with.

(image from www.shine2010.co.za Flickr)

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Primark’s padded bikini banned

April 15th, 2010
bra

Can you imagine working in the press office at Primark? You wake up on what you think to be a normal day only to pick up The Sun and see its front page headline: “Paedo Bikini.” That must have been enough to make them choke on their morning crumpets!

Primark’s £4 padded bikini was part of the retailer’s swimming costume range aimed at 7 year old girls and has been the cause of a massive outcry from the public, media, bloggers and politicians alike, David Cameron jumped on the bandwagon branding the sale “disgraceful”.

It’s been a free for all, with anyone and everyone fighting to have their say on the offending item, in fact, we’ve just been chatting to The Sun who said they were “knee deep” in padded bikinis…I hope they didn’t mean literally!

I’m an aunty and the thought of buying my niece a padded bikini top, at that sort of age, seems ridiculous to me… in fact I’d think twice about buying a bikini at all and not a costume. Children grow up so quickly nowadays, but no matter how much they want to copy what Hannah Montana wears on the beach, it has to be up to the parents to make sure that they ignore the begging and buy something more appropriate to that age group.

Representing a babyfood company, we keep a finger on the pulse of all baby forums and I do agree with Carrie Longston- co-founder of Mumsnet when she said: “Mumsnet feels quite strongly that this overt sexualisation of young children is wrong. We all dressed up in mummy’s clothes when we were at home… but this is about retailers taking responsibility.”

Primark unsurprisingly withdrew the item and quickly announced a donation of all profits from the bikini sales to a children’s charity. Transparent?  Yes. Effective? Well, I like to think they’ve learnt a valuable lesson. Promote overtly sexual clothes for children and risk the wrath of a shock ‘Sun’ headline!

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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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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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Sun Talk – the voice of the people

April 14th, 2009

As a PR professional, the Sun has always been heralded as the true voice of the people – and next week marks an interesting development as the written word is spoken aloud

From Monday April 20 2009 DJ, Jon Gaunt will fronting a live phone-in radio show called “Sun Talk” on the internet between 10am and 1pm from Monday to Friday.

Topping the bill on day one is David Cameron, who will be joined by a host of famous guests and regular contributions from Sun Columnists who are all keen to get involved.

In a direct quote from the Sun:

“This is the station for YOU where you will not only get expert comment, controversy and loads of laughs but also the chance to interact and have YOUR SAY – and say it how you want. My live show will be on Monday to Friday from 10am and 1pm but will be available to download (ask the kids) 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

Sun Talk – the Home of Free Speech – takes the ‘right to reply’ to a new level and offers PROs interested in engaging the hearts and minds of their public a new way to reach them.

We’ll be tuning in – and hope you do too.

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Whose fault is it anyway?

February 25th, 2009

Yesterday it was the Mail and today it’s the Star; social media continues to fall foul of the papers.

Their outrage has been pointed at social networking sites which according to ‘an eminent scientist’ will ‘harm a child’s brain’.

Is Facebook carrying damaging subliminal messages? Is Twitter releasing invasive alien creatures through the screen? Not that I’ve noticed.

Actually what Susan Greenfield is saying is that because children are using social networking sites their attention spans are reduced.

I’m not a neuroscientist so I can’t make any claim to refute this. What I do refute is her extrapolation from this that children will lose the ability to communicate effectively.

She suggests that the rise in the use of both social media and autism may be linked and even my A Level Psychology tells me that correlation does not equate to cause and effect.

On the contrary surely social media encourages communication: children in the UK talking to Japanese, American and Kenyan children about their interests can’t be doing their communication skills any harm.

This story reminded me of another young girl who last week received 70% burns from a sun bed because she was too young to be using it and went on it for longer than instructed.

Her mother claimed in the media that the sun bed was to blame. However used safely and with a little thought, as they are by most people, sun beds do not cause 70% burns.

Blaming social media is like blaming the sun bed. Children can use sites like Facebook in moderation to share their interests, research their hobbies or catch up with friends or they can sit in front of them for 7 hours a day bully their peers and play computer game like applications.

Surely which of these happens is down to the child and their parenting not the network.

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