Legendary Publicist – Max Clifford

Everyone knows celebrities need a good publicist to help them deal with media and publics. When it comes to the well-known English publicist in entertainment industry, Max Clifford, of course, is the one who should be discussed.

On 13 March 1986, The Sun carried as its main headline: FREDDIE STARR ATE MY HAMSTER - one of the most famous British tabloid newspaper headlines of all time. The story was invented by Max Clifford which is untrue, but the story brought Starr much publicity for his forthcoming tour. This was one of the first example where, rather than PR agents managing what went into the media or confirming a journalist's storyline, Clifford created a fast-selling story which he sold to the media, and its counter line follow-up

Max Clifford has represented various clients, including talented TV show judge Simon Cowell; Liverpool left-wing politician Derek Hatton, for whom Clifford created an affair in order to change his image; Big Brother celebrity Jade Goody and Shilpa Shetty. Although some of them are controversial, I still have to admire he does know what the publics’ needs and gives to them at the right time.

Here are 10 tips given by Max Clifford. If you want to become a famous person or celebrity, these are ways to start with gaining publics’ attention:

• Appear on a reality series
• Enter a talent contest
• Be abysmal on a talent show
• Gain fame by association
• Date a celebrity
• Flaunt your body
• Date a Royal Family member
• Make a home sex video
• Be a success on MySpace
• Be in the right place at the right time

Becoming a celebrity doesn’t connect to fortune and success, recently Max Clifford points out “Fame is empty, meaningless.” However, if Fame is meaningless, why there are still a large number of people is attempting to upload their personal life on cyber society.

READ MORE - Legendary Publicist – Max Clifford

Good Week for Lord Mandelson?

An article on the online version of PRWeek claims that this week has been a good week for Lord Mandelson.

Attacking The Sun, Lord Mandelson who appeared on Wednesday’s Today Programme is said to have deftly deflected attention away from Gordon Brown’s mis-spelt letter of condolence to the mother of a soldier killed in Afghanistan.

Yes, Mandelson may have a gift for good oratory and deflecting questions but what about the effect of his own personal image on those who listen to him? Surely after a while people will begin to associate him with spin doctoring. I certainly do – my copy of the recommended Media Relations book, Be your own spin doctor has an endorsement from him on the front cover!

Lessons should be learnt from the downfall of Alistair Campbell. If Mandelson wants to retain some credibility then it is best to do his work behind the scenes. “Celebrity” spin doctors don’t win votes.

What is particularly annoying is that spin doctoring and public relations get rolled up into one by the media. And this time the media is PRWeek. The article is written in a way which suggests some admiration for “the dark lord”. Why is PRWeek covering something which is by no stretch of the imagination best practice public relations?

READ MORE - Good Week for Lord Mandelson?

Make a difference and then mix!

I agree that there is not a clear distinction between PR and marketing, but there should be!
This could be a failure of PR people themselves: They did not create a definition about PR, which is widely known. In the conscience of publics PR is a term, everybody assumes issues to it, but nobody can clearly and concretely define it. In addition, PR and marketing are mostly citied in the same context, which makes a distinction not easier.

(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6W5W-3YF47SX-3D&_user=241825&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1092686233&_rerunOrigin=scholar.google&_acct=C000014938&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=241825&md5=0dc44f5fac6d6c0e86f0f070322d58d4)

In my opinion marketing is the general term and the term for corporation´s philosophy as well. At the end both ways aim to make profits but they set different aspects. The philosophy of a corporation is orientated more on the desires and needs of the customers, whereas marketing – when used as general term – refers to advertising, public relations, sales, product placement and more.

READ MORE - Make a difference and then mix!

Why do so many students fail to understand the difference between Public Relations and Marketing?

Why do so many students and probably even some experienced Public Relations (PR) practioners mix up or get confused over the distinct functions of PR and Marketing? You also never seem to get a proper answer from anyone regarding the differences. The answer is simple – ignorance of the understanding of their definitions and analysing their differences.
The two disciplines are so intertwined and so related that you need to study the differences in detail. Lets look at the definitions:
Public Relations - According to the Mexican Statement which resulted from an assembly of PR associations from 31 countries agreed that, “Public relations practice is the art and social science of analyzing trends, predicting their consequences, counselling organizations’ leaders, and implementing planned programmes of action which will serve both the organizations’ and the public interest.” (http://rebeccakelly.wordpress.com/2009/03/12/what-is-public-relations/, Accessed 13 Nov. 2009).
Marketing – The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) defines Marketing as “the management process that identifies, anticipates and satisfies customer requirements profitably.” (http://www.marketingteacher.com/Lessons/lesson_what_is_marketing.htm , Accessed 13 Nov. 2009).

According to these definitions, PR is about building and nurturing relationships with your publics. It is about understanding your publics, including the internal publics and coming up with some form of plan to build and maintain those relationships for the benefit of all parties.
Marketing is about profits. It all has to do with bringing business or increasing the profit margins of the organisations.
From these definitions, it could be concluded that all organisations need to have a PR function on its organisational structure, but probably not all organisations, such as government agencies and non-governmental organisations (NGO’s) need a Marketing function.
Perhaps the whole confusion between the differences of the two disciplines lies in the fact that no one seems to agree what the definition of Public Relations is supposed to be?
The confusion is also further compounded by the fact that many organisations are now creating single departments responsible for both functions and the use of the terms ‘Corporate Communication’ and ‘Marketing Communications’ as incorporating both functions.

This is why PR education and reseach is so vital.
PR definitions “fail to describe ‘how’ PR does what it is supposed to do. (Morris and Goldsworthy, 2008)[...]The idea of persuasion has also been left out of many academic definitions, even though there is evidence of its importance in the profession’s history [...] This might have been left out due to the negative connotations surrounding the idea of persuasion, and the ongoing wish of PR practitioners to idealise their field of work.” (http://rebeccakelly.wordpress.com/2009/03/12/what-is-public-relations/, Accessed 13 Nov. 2009)
To further understand the differences, read the difference between PR and Marketing.

READ MORE - Why do so many students fail to understand the difference between Public Relations and Marketing?

A PR disaster: Gordon Brown or The Sun?

Was UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s latest erring (mis-spelling of UK soldier's name killed in Afghanistan) a Public Relations disaster for the Labour Party or a PR success in disguise?

What many thought would be a terrible backlash from the public and the media seemed to have turned out to be an empathatic PR win for the party, with some members of the public proclaiming to now vote for the Labour party come elections time.

It seems as if The Sun newspaper is now suffering bad PR from its own ploy to squash the Labour Party’s hopes of winning the upcoming national elections. Even though it is common practice in the western world for media houses to support political parties, with The Sun having proclaimed its support to the Conservative Party, the newspaper would now have to do damage control to win back the support of the public and more importantly its readers and to prove that it practices fair and non-partisan journalism.

In a recent poll by The Guardian newspaper, 90% of those who took part in the poll believed that The Sun was unbiased.

READ MORE - A PR disaster: Gordon Brown or The Sun?

READ MORE -

Door Code for D6

The Door Code for D6  is C1985X

Remember that you are not allowed to eat or drink in the room.   You cab be barred from using the room outside timetabled periods if you do.

READ MORE - Door Code for D6