PR Studies

PR - or publicity?

Question: which PR person was profiled on the front page of a UK Sunday newspaper review section? Answer: Pat Kingley, 'in many respects the most powerful woman in Hollywood'.

As gatekeeper to so many celebrities, she exerts control over the media that would be very damaging if she worked in corporate relations or public affairs. But it's movies (a make-believe world), so her power doesn't raise many eyebrows.

She'll demand that her stars appear on the covers of magazines or not at all, that they have the right of veto over writers and photographers, that they get copy approval... She is rumoured to have have said to one editor: 'Why do you get to decide who goes on your cover?'

I've been carrying the newspaper around since Sunday, so here, belatedly, is the link from The Observer on Sunday 25 September.

Disposable culture

Kate Nicholas of PR Week (writing in The Independent) casts a critical eye at the value of celebrity endorsement as another TV series celebrating celebrity comes to an end.

Fallen idol

At least David Beckham scored from a free kick to earn Real Madrid a much-needed win last night.

But Media Guardian speculates that his contract with another ailing name, Marks & Spencer, might be terminated early. It appears that Beckham is devalued as a celebrity now he's less visible in Britain.

I'm sceptical about our obsession with celebrity and didn't enjoy Hamish Pringle's Celebrity Sells - an extended advertisement for big budget marketing communications.

Time waits for no brand

At least I had my say well before the Borkowski ideas factory got round to processing spicy Beckham sausage meat. But their approach is so much more eloquent. Time waits for no brand...

Sex, fees and newspapers

Leeds Met PR student Svend Anders Karlsen-Moum spotted an article on 'kiss and tell' in Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet on 24 April 2004.

The article took a critical look at the British media's sex obsession and explored the role played by Max Clifford (Svend Anders translates):

Max Clifford takes 20 per cent of the fees he negotiates for his clients. The agent says the number of girls who have approched him in recent years has increased, and he now has employees working solely with those who have a story to sell. "I believe there are many who track down footballers and other celebrities just to make money out of them," he says.

Dagbladet defends the different standards that prevail in Norway:

Here in Norway newspapers are unwilling to pay for stories and information. There are no written rules, but there is agreement amongst editors that this sort of journalism is not wanted. "The credibility of stories disappears when you pay for them. Information has value, and if it takes more money to get the bigger stories, then journalists will be told only what they would like to hear," says Svein Burass, who teaches journalism and has written several books on ethics in journalism.

Here are the reflections of a young Norwegian PR student, studying in Britain, who is a keen follower of the national sport (he's a Leeds United season ticket holder).

The stories of what Rebecca Loos and David Beckham may have got up to in a hotel in Spain keep spinning around. Is this what the British people want to fill their lives with? Gossip about lovers and people being paid to reveal secrets that most people regard as private and sensitive. That's how it seems to me, coming from Norway.

The British people view this as entertainment. That is why the News of the World, The Sun and Sky – all owned by Rupert Murdoch - have paid so much money to publish interviews with Miss Loos discussing four nights and some text-messages.

The main element of the story is that a man is alleged to have cheated on his wife: something that happens in 30-40 per cent of all marriages. I doubt that Norway is much different from Britain in this area. And I don’t think Norwegian footballers have cheated less than British footballers. But there has never been a story in the Norwegian media telling about such affairs. Why not?

From an ethical view, there is no reason to publish such a story if both parties have given their consent. Even though he is an icon – a brand – David Beckham simply plays football. When the revelations about Prince Charles came out, these had an element of importance: he will one day be king. When president Clinton was found out, the important point was that he had lied under oath.

The Beckhams are people like everyone else and with the same human rights as others. In Britain, people – and most of all the press – do not care about this.

When the press buys a story – paying someone to sell their story – they lose all critical perspective. The more the press has paid for a story, the less it will criticise the source of that story. They want a good story, the quotes to make front pages, to sell more papers.

Studying PR here in England, I meet a lot of people. It's nearly impossible to start a conversation with a young English person about politics (there may be exceptions but I have yet to meet them), and especially international politics. Every 20 year old in this country knows who Rebecca Loos is. Most guys know Jordan's bra size. But not one of them knows who the controversial prime minister of Italy is. Or the name of any other head of state in Europe.

When I say I am from Norway, the only thing they are sure of is that the booze is expensive.

Does the British press take responsibility for informing us about more important and relevant matters? And do the PR agents who help sell the stories take any notice of what they are actually doing? I know it's 'only a job', yet what does this do for the image of PR professionals? Will people working in PR ever be taken seriously, when people know most PR agents will say anything for money?

Back to Miss Loos again, and her story. It's a simple ”wow, I made him cheat story”. She is not a victim. Rather the opposite; she is getting very rich. From the information Miss Loos has given the British people, we now know that a given footballer in Spain has a sex life, and for a short period of time had a sexual partner who was not his wife. That’s all it is really, and it might possibly be true. But important, never.

Svend Anders Karlsen-Moum

Tips for celebrities

The BBC offers this not-entirely-serious advice on how to handle a media scandal. Meanwhile, Mark Borkowski dissects the Beckham business in Media Guardian (registration required).

Pointless celebrity

'A nation obsessed with talentless, pointless celebrity', writes Piers Morgan in The Guardian, promoting his new Channel 4 series devoted to celebrity.

On Max alert

The involvement of Max Clifford in a high profile case that has yet to lead to charges or to a trial has been noted elsewhere (eg PR Fuel).

Today Brian MacLaurin comments in Media Guardian on the implications of this case. He argues that law firms should be offering high-level professional media support in cases such as these. (Not replacing PR consultants, but working with them, presumably.)

He's right. But he misses the point that Max Clifford has surely been approached by the person making the allegations not to make her case in public, nor even to broker the sale of her story. Neither would look good in court. Surely he's there to provide the family with protection from the media.

Truth international

Over a year ago, on another site, I commented (see entry for 11 May 2002) on a then current news story involving the England football coach, his partner Nancy Dell'Olio, a TV presenter, a PR fixer and a charity.

At the time, there seemed to me to be some details missing from the story. The charity, Truce International, was mentioned, but without any supporting evidence. Now I learn that this charity was only launched this week. It's mentioned in this Mirror article, and PR Week reports that Protocol PR is to promote the charity. Protocol PR's founder is Simon Astaire, who also had a walk-on part in last year's tabloid revelations.

It's good that this is all cleared up now. Perhaps it's just me that feels uneasy about the tabloids being manipulated into premature PR announcements on the back of celebrity photo opportunities.

The governor?

Where does celebrity stop and politics begin? Mark Borkowski analyses Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Californian state of politics in Media Guardian:

Since we live in a world where fact and fiction are often so intertwined as to be indistinguishable, his decision to stand for California state governor is completely logical. Celebrities are our heroes, and one of the most valuable media commodities; politics is a game of media control; the perfect politician is the bankable star whose every last utterance and action is front page news.