Schoolboy error?

After taking a Bluewood Blog Break over August we thought it was time for another look for any gaffes and problems going on in the media. And sure enough, there is a historic one today from E.On. Whether the statement is actually true or not is neither here nor there – please REMEMBER all spokespeople; if you don’t want to see it the next day in print, don’t say it!

Read about it on Sky News here:
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Business/Campaigners-Fury-Over-Fuel-Crisis-Jibe-Made-By-EOn-Energy-Company-Executive/Article/200809215097206?lpos=Business_3&lid=ARTICLE_15097206_Campaigners%2BFury%2BOver%2BFuel%2BCrisis%2BJibe%2BMade%2BBy%2BE.On%2BEnergy%2BCompany%2BExecutive

Heckles drowned in song

We are often asked in our courses how to handle people who keep asking difficult or unwanted questions during a presentation and although heckling tends to be more normal for stand-up comedy it seems even Bishops have to handle it too.

During a sermon by the first openly gay Bishop a heckler came in and started ‘making himself heard’, how did the congregation handle it? With a hymn!

Read about it on the Beeb’s site here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7504570.stm

Not sure it would work for an AGM though…

Primark. The killer questions. (from the comfort of the microsite..)

Interesting tack from Primark in their response to the recent 'revelation' of their use of child labour.

Rather than agree to any interviews with Panorama for their programme on the subject - through fear of bias - Primark instead set up a micro site to speak to comsumers 'directly'.

According to PRWeek "A journalist was brought in to put unscripted questions to Primark dir­ector Breege O'Donoghue and the footage was pos­ted on its site at 9pm on Monday, the same time as the BBC documentary was screened."

http://www.prweek.com/uk/news/article/822908/Primark-uses-web-counter-BBC/?DCMP=EMC-DailyNews

So was this smart handling of such a delicate issue? Or just a cowardly move by an organisation that clearly knew they were in the wrong...?

Good coverage for just £74!

Not quite the PR campaign you might expect to be pushing but this Chinese Hotel has been trying a few shortcuts:

http://uk.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUKPEK13804520080623?feedType=nl&feedName=ukmorningdigest

“The Gehua New Century Hotel, which describes itself as "China's first five-star hotel with a media-cultural theme", has promised journalists up to 1,000 yuan (74 pounds) for articles about it.”

Admittedly it doesn’t say the articles have to be positive, so perhaps you can make your £74 and be ‘honest’. The Bluewood team has media trained delegates from certain foreign nations before who felt this was the way to get things done with the media, but we don't really recommend you try it in the UK!

Expensive illness!

You know your presentation wasn’t great when it leads to $19bn being wiped off your share price. Poor old Steve Jobs came down with flu in the last few weeks and when he didn’t look too good at the new iphone presentation a few bloggers thought he was on the way out (thinking his cancer had returned). Sure enough, the blog posts caused panic and the share price took a dive – the moral of this story? Not sure there, but it might be that you shouldn’t always listen to the gossip!

Read the story on the Times site here: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/chris_ayres/article4152295.ece

Sore loser?

One of the headlines on PR Week today was that “Hillary Clinton's former international media co-ordinator has hit out at the press, alleging unprecedented bias towards presidential nominee Barack Obama”.

The question is not so much of whether this is true but more whether it’s really a good idea to ‘hit out at’ or blame the press after the event (the event during which you were part of the losing side).

Is this the moaning of a sore loser whose strategy didn’t work? Or is it a valid point about the power of a ‘friendly’ media?

Read PR Week’s article here: http://www.prweek.com/uk/home/article/816166/media-bias-strategy-error-clintons-fall-splits-lobbyists/

Going the extra mile (or 2,500)

How about this for a tale of extraordinary customer service.

New York taxi driver Douglas Guldeniz drove an elderly couple all the way from their home in Queens, NYC, to their retirement home in Arizona, 2500 miles away, in the city's longest ever taxi journey.

Guldeniz earned himself the New York Taxi and Limousine Comission's 'Going The Extra Mile' award (and the £1,500 fare!) for his efforts.

"If my passengers, they want to dance, then I want to dance for them," He said.

Not too sure about the dancing part... but what a great guy!

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91059-1310975,00.html

Brown Porridge.

Gordon's not had a good week:
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91211-1313197,00.html
He's down in the polls, been voted Briatain's most boring man and now is being accused of having communication skills equivalent to haggis!?
Lord Desai even said "with Mr Brown as leader it would be very difficult for Labour to win the next election."
What next for Gordon?

A Bit More Flash Gordon.

According to PR Week today; Gordon Brown’s top advisors are concerned that his speeches aren’t hitting the right chords with the public:

‘It has been ack­now­le­dged that the Governme­nt's messa­ges are too cluttered and that Gordon needs to show a bit more personality, rather than stilted language that he tends to use when he makes these speeches.'

It’s true that Brown doesn’t come across as the most charismatic when he speaks (his speech today at the Emirates stadium was an example of this and he looks down at his notes too much!), but we at Bluewood are sure that he could do better if he had the right coaching to build his confidence and inject some life into his presentations.

We are here if you need us Gordon!

This one might upset a few trainers...

An incredibly interesting debate has been started over the US versus UK stance on the use of 'off the record' comments made by interviewees.

It was prompted by the Scotsman's Gerri Peeve running a front page emblazoned with the headline 'Clinton is a Monster' - an 'off the record' comment made in an interviewee with a member of Barack Obama's staff - Samantha Powers. The discussion was firmly 'on the record' but when Powers suggested that Hillary was a monster, she quickly realised her gaffe and demanded that Peev treated it as off the record.

We always advise delegates that nothing can ever be guaranteed as off the record - so if you'd rather not see something in print then just DON'T say it.

Follow the link below to see the showdown between MSNCB's Tucker Carlson and the Scotsman's Gerri Peeve...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-GKsguIRV4

Marketing with imagination:

Cadbury's latest results go to show that they weren't just monkeying around last year (sorry!), and they attribute some of their confectionery sales-success to the monkey/Phil Collins ad. If in doubt...get creative!

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30400-1305940,00.html

Is Putin scared of the media?

The latest news from Russia is that Putin has hired his old Judo buddy to head-up the Government's press unit:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,,2245228,00.html
Not quite sure what to make of this - although I still doubt he'd stand much of a chance against some of the UK hacks when they smell 'blood'!

Practise, practise, practise!

On Prime Minister's questions yesterday Gordon Brown was again fighting a losing battle against Cameron, who always comes across as sharper (if a little too sarcastic) than the PM. Gordon eventually hit back with his often-used accusation of Cameron's lines being over rehearsed, saying "all the lines rehearsed infront of the mirror".

He may be right about how Cameron prepares but to be honest with the way he is being shown up every week maybe Brown should try it too!

Hack(er)s account

Happy New Year from Bluewood.
We thought that the first post of 2008 should be a funny one, luckily Jeremy Clarkson has given us a (vaguely) media-relevant one:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7174760.stm
Moral behind this story? It's probably that you should be careful what you say (or write) in the media!