PR In A Jar

Branson says PR rocks!

Click here forBranson's nugget of wisdom about us PR good eggs.

 

Lehman's, PR and Internal Comms

Today's PR Week ruminates on the Lehman Brothers story, and how poor internal communications won't have helped matters for the bank.

Mr Brown Gives Up Smiling as Part of PR Campaign

An interesting article by PR Week editor Danny Rogers in yesterday's Guardian discussed Gordon Brown's media team and PR tactics.

Goodbye to Bill

As the business world and of course the media bid a fond-ish farewell to Bill Gates, the PR sector has been reflecting on Chairman Bill's contribution to our industry.

Gates famously said, of course, that if he had one dollar left, he'd spend it on PR ... a mantra that's doubtlessly been trotted out at many a PR pitch since then, despite that fact that Gates is pretty much the man in the world the least likely to only ever have a dollar left.

Is the laptop the new domestic loom?

Interesting article in the current issue of Management Today which further proposes that a return to more traditional modes of working may be coming.

I was recently at the Hay Festival and which included a riveting lecture by US sociologist Richard Sennett about craftsmanship and pride in one's work re: the knowledge economy. Revisiting bygone ways of working certainly seems to be something everyone's talking about at the moment.

PRs in the News: Marcus Courage

The Sunday Times ran a piece yesterday about Marcus Courage, the Old Etonian PR man who was apparently advising Kenya's president in the recent election.

Oldham’s Little Donkey Stirs Up Debate

(from Jane's 'Hit, Miss or Maybe' contribution to this week's M-Cast PR Podcast)

This week Oldham clergyman Canon John Sykes has been publicly complaining about a nativity scene in Oldham town centre’s High Street, and asking it to be removed without further ado because he says it’s too ‘shabby’. Having seen a photo of the one-eared donkey, I’d have to agree that it looks bad – at first sight I thought it was one of those cloned farm animals gone wrong.

Hit, Miss or Maybe: David Cameron’s Manchester Blast

(a contribution to the M-Cast PR Podcast, 12 November)

Last week David Cameron brought the city’s social problems into focus, particularly the divide between the haves and the have-nots that persist despite the city’s general economic success – a point already made in Iain Duncan-Smith’s report ‘Manchester Breakthrough’ – and indeed the Council’s own recent ‘State of the City’ report.

But from a PR point of view, what’s Cameron playing at? ...

Nathan giving talk on PR at The Met Club, Monday 8 October

Our own Nathan Smith will be speaking about PR at The Met Club's Manchester Business Club Lunch at the Palace Hotel next Monday, 8th October.

Freedom of Expression ... and the Right to Offend

Saw a German film last night, The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Andere), set in East Berlin in 1984. Without giving too much away, it's about a Stasi official spying on intellectuals and artists. ... but it really makes you think about freedom of expression and just how much we sometimes take for granted.

Pictured: wild geese flying over the John Muir Conservation Area, East Lothian, Scotland.