Want to get in a room with a journalist?
The list of clients and journalists I like is, by now, fairly long and includes good friends from both camps. But is it ever a good idea to put both in the same room with the offer that the client...
Tesco’s 5p reputation
Tesco has had its fair share of bad PR over the years, and as a result spends a great deal of resource and time superintending its reputation. Anyone who follows the legal media will know that it is currently facing...
Becoming the story: PR people who get bad PR
We often see PR firms having to manage the PR disasters of their less savvy clients. It is arresting, then, when a PR adviser gets something very wrong – and when it happens it tends to attract a lot of...
Top 5 social media blunders
We regularly bring you examples of ways in which everyone from politicians to celebrities and even ‘normal people’ have managed to make spectacular blunders on social media that have ended up being very high profile. When it comes to brand...
Does anyone really care if you lie?
I'm at the IBA in Vienna this week networking with over 5000 lawyers and I have had numerous conversation about the fate of Volkswagen's brand. To answer this I've started by asking a few questions. Do you own a diesel engine Volkswagen?...
Can you control naming and shaming online?
It’s an unfortunate reality that most women experience casual sexism as an everyday occurrence. A yell from a white van man as she walks to work, or a presumption she will undertake the lion’s share of household chores; women in...
Taylor Swift and Calvin Harris – a case study
Not that long ago I blogged about Taylor Swift’s pretty immaculate record when it comes to well played moves in Twitter spats. Well, it seems I was tempting fate as the internet has been buzzing with Swift’s name this week,...
Is Justin Gatlin’s decision to boycott the media right?
When it comes to the media, most celebrities tend to take a cautious, even fearful approach. There’s no doubt that we have seen some horrible invasions of privacy by (mostly tabloid) journalists and some pretty devastating stories about high profile...
Social media: how to fight nice
I took a few days off last week and as a consequence found myself delving into the lives of Taylor Swift and Katy Perry through the medium of Heat magazine. Both are two vastly famous and successful young women who...
A lion called Cecil, a witch called Walter and a wardrobe full of Twitter abuse
Admittedly, it's quite difficult to generate a massive amount of sympathy for Minnesota dentist Walter Palmer. In case you've forgotten, he managed to see off Zimbabwe's favourite lion, Cecil, while on one of those awful big game shoot safari holidays...