razorkitty

Public Relations and Bernard Matthews

Writing in today's Times City Diary under the headline 'PR firm must be as sick as a parrot', Martin Waller draws our attention to the Bernard Matthews fiasco and Hill & Knowlton's part within this as 'crisis PR specialists'.  Read it for yourselves and make your own mind up, but a PR firm that doesn't return telephone calls?  Tut tut.

Flogging a Dead Horse?

Fake bloggers are to be exposed, according to Hannah Marriott writing the lead story for this week's PR Week.  'Flogging' (fake blogging) has been a worrisome issue for some time (remember Edelman and Wal-Mart?) and it seems that it is a practice likely to be made illegal when the EU's Unfair Commercial Practices Directive is made law at the end of 2007.  'Flogging' is certainly unethical and indeed will soon be illegal, but how on earth it is supposed to be properly policed is anyone's guess. 

More on Wikipedia

I am indebted to Gregory Kohs who posted this in response to my post Wikipedia Warns PR Agencies They Face Ban

"That's how Jimbo rolls, Razorkitty. The self-editing of Larry Sanger out of the picture is just the tip of the iceberg. What about the many violations of the "External Links" policy, where Wikipedia gladly fosters over 3700 outbound links to Wikia.com -- which is owned by, guess who? Also, note that Jimbo's Wikia.com partner, Angela Beesley, often edits "her" article about Wikia within Wikipedia. No conflict of interest there?"

Very interesting Gregory.  And thanks for the link to http://www.centiare.com/.  Well worth a look in my opinion.

Wikipedia Warns PR Agencies They Face Ban

Last week's rather disturbing story on the front page of PR Week [paywalled] has created something of a furore amongst us PR folk.  Apparently, Wikipedia's founder Jim Wales is threatening to ban PR agencies from contributing to the esteemed site.  Wales insists:

"There's a huge conflict of interest.  Contributors cannot be paid for what they are doing."

It appears Wales spokeout after it emerged US firm MyWikiBiz had been banned from editing client entries in 2006, and also that Microsoft had been paying a blogger to amend its entries.

All essential PR bloggers have had pertinent comments to make on the subject (I personally cannot see what is wrong with PR people editing Wikipedia entries - after all, that is rather the raison d'etre of the whole thing and as long as one adheres to the guidelines, a PR person editing is no different to Joe Schmo editing) but there is one very interesting point to make that is actually listed in Wikipedia itself, under the Jim Wales entry:

"In late 2005, Wales was criticised for editing his own biography page on Wikipedia in a way some characterized as "revisionist history."In particular, Rogers Cadenhead drew attention to logs showing that Mr. Wales had removed references to Sanger as the co-founder of Wikipedia". 

Interested parties can read the entire entry on Jim Wales themselves.  One rule for one, one rule for everyone else?

School Reports

I've just received my 13 year old son's school report  Something of a Curate's Egg. There was the usual blah blah from the teachers but his Physics master at Leeds Grammar School was a welcome echo from ye olde days when teachers could actually write with wit and insight.  Suffice it to say my son's metier is not, alas, science (could be my genes here, I well remember my Chemistry master throwing, in utter frustration, a blackboard eraser at me for keeping up an unending stream of chat during his lectures about potassium crystals, guess he couldn't do that now), but his teacher refuses to give him up as a bad job and signed the report off as saying "I remain afflicted by hope".  Well done Mr Jolly.  So do I.

Freedom of speech?

If the latest Celebrity Big Brother fiasco (or success, depending on whether or not you're a Channel 4 bean counter) holds up a mirror to society, it seems mankind will continue to be deeply divided on the issues of race, religion and class.  At least sexual orientation was left out of it, proof, if proof were needed, that the world is at least a tad more tolerant on all matters homosexual.  Er - no. Step forward Donnie Davies, a man single-handedly determined to keep the world of bigotry alive.  It's hard to believe people like this are allowed to peddle their poisonous messages on the Web.  Freedom of speech and all that?  Sometimes I wonder........

Back For Good - and Life's a Gas

I'm back!  Yes, I apologise for neglecting my readers for such a long time but believe me, I've been busy.  I spent the whole of Christmas and New Year choked with 'flu (the proper sort, not the "touch of" variety, before anyone says anything) and then what seems to be the entire month of January alternating between telephoning British Gas and NPower who between them seem to have been happily trousering large sums of my hard-earned cash whilst at the same time threatening to cut me off/demand money with menaces/ignore me completely. 

I won't go into the whys and wherefores of this unhappy saga, suffice it to say it is NOTHING to do with anything I've done.  Having spoken to what seemed to be several hundred members of staff for both organisations, all of whom promise to sort the mess out and none of whom do, in sheer desperation I tracked down the name of the head of corporate affairs at British Gas.  Hey presto.  What a great bunch of people.  I was dealt with in a cordial, professional manner and everything that could be done to help me - was.  So far, NPower haven't quite come up to the same standards.    So I've got in touch with their Press Office - a tad surprised to hear a real, live consumer on the end of the telephone, I must say - and they too are apparently going to get everything fixed.

I'll keep you all posted as to the results of this sorry saga but so far - BG, I shall be returning to you if your promises all hold good.

And thank you Mr Mark Duffell, who can't have been pleased having me complaining to him but sorted everything out nonetheless.

There is, I feel, a lesson to be learned here.  The power of PR, in essence.  If I hadn't worked in the PR industry and known how to go about contacting the right people, I might be in a very difficult situation now with no-one to help me. 

Boring Teachers

I read in The Times today that "Boring Teachers Blamed For Rowdy Classes".  Well, dur, as my own children would say.  Apparently it has taken a report by Ofsted to reveal this hitherto unknown fact.  No doubt it came as a surprise to the schools watchdog to learn that "Some pupils disliked individual teachers so much that they would bunk off if certain members of staff were in school rather than turn up to class.  This particularly affected schools with a high turnover of staff."  No manure, Sherlock.  I know I've said it before, but it bears repeating.  Why do we need time and money spending on reports that do nothing other than state the obvious?

PRide Awards

Forgive me for the plug, but I must say I'm delighted to report that Cicada Public Relations won Silver at this week's PRide Awards in Leeds for our National Insect Week campaign.  Well done to Di, Liz and Amy for such a brilliant result!

I may not be on the PRide Awards judging panel (shome mishtake, shurely?) but in my opinion, Simon Collister should have won the category Young Communicator of the Year. I can't remember how old Simon is, but if he's still eligible next year then I tip him to win!

harrogateconfidential - a website with a difference

For those of you reading this and who have an interest in Harrogate (not too many of you, thinking about it,) check out www.harrogateconfidential.com.  It's a new website that threatens to give all the goss about the A-listers of our genteel spa town.  Alas the inhabitants of gillsworld turned up for the launch party two hours late due to being engrossed in the X Factor/Strictly Come Dancing/chatting and consuming large quantities of Pinot Grigio. We thus completely missed the photographer.  Sighs of regret all round.