Whilst I can’t stand hunting, I do feel sorry for Walter J. Palmer the dentist from Minnesota who shot Cecil with a high-tech cross-bow. Given that thousands of people across the world go hunting every day and that the killing of animals for sport, trophy and other dubious benefits is commonplace, he is extraordinarily unlucky. […]
The tricks journalists use in an aggressive interview are small in number and well known; and in reality, really aggressive interviews are rare. But if you think your spokesperson or you could be facing aggression here is a checklist of things to do or think about. 1. Rehearse your messages As with all interviews, there […]
The Reuters Institute has today published its digital news report and it is fascinating and probably essential reading for all of us working in PR. I strongly suggest that you read this report for yourself, or at least the executive summary because there is so much interesting information in it. But here are a few […]
Pity Alistair Phillips-Davies. He was clearly never a boy scout. His PR team won him a coveted spot on the Today programme on Radio 4 this morning. What is more he was to talk about a survey that throws a positive light on his company. But the outcome was a three-minute car crash which left […]
UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s comments, that if re-elected in May he would not seek a third term in office in five years time, is the lead story in all the main British newspapers today and on radio and television. It was definitely a scoop for BBC’s James Landale who was conducting a ‘cosy’ behind the […]
It’s always good to laugh and one interview on BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme this morning certainly caused me to guffaw. It is a classic and rather funny example of scientist Sushil Atreya, a Professor with the Curiosity programme, refusing to compromise and explain the possibility of life on Mars in layman’s language – and […]
I am posting here a link to a brilliant bit of radio that brings to life the impact of the Syrian civil war by relating it to the UK. The opening sentence gives you a chilling flavour of what is to come. “Say you are one of the two and a half million people who […]
Media Coach trainers spend a great deal of time trying to persuade serious business people to use metaphor. Metaphor makes simple ideas more fun and more memorable – or to use our jargon ‘stickier’. A ‘sticky’ message is the best sort! David Cameron’s private and embarrassing use of the word ‘purred’ in the same sentence […]
As my colleague Laura Shields has already noted, there was much to praise about the UK Prime Minister’s handling of the press conference in response to the rising flood waters along the banks of the Thames this week. But there were problems too – including the choice of which message David Cameron chose to […]
