A Media Person's Musings

When Poker Pays!

On Saturday night I played in a live poker tournament. Not a very surprising thing for those of you that know me but this was a charity poker tourney. It was organised on behalf of Vicky's Water Project a great charity that was set up in Vicky's memory after she was tragically killed last year. Her fiance and friends have all been fundraising and the goal is to raise £250,000 to provide fresh drinking water to small communities in Africa.

Playing poker live is always a challenge but this was even more challenging than normal as I was playing 120 people of all skill levels - from beginner to advanced! What was even more challenging was knowing that the more you crashed out and bought back in..the more would be raised for the charity! Consequently in the first hour I played far more loosely than I normally would and re-bought in a couple of times.

A colleague of mine who doesn't play poker very often also played and I gave him a bit of a pep talk telling him to play only the good starting hands. How I wish I had followed my own advice! I crashed out 24th to find him still in and he eventually finished just shy of the final table.

It was a great fun evening and just reinforced to me why poker is such a great game. It is accessible to everyone, a great leveller and on this occasion a brilliant way of raising money.

Making Meltdown Money

Britney's at it again! Today we hear that she contacted OK! Magazine to arrange an interview and photo shoot with them so she could tell all about her problems. Sensationally the story broke today that in the interview she deliberately ruined or stole thousands of dollars worth of dresses that had been on loan for the shoot. The pictures were so bad that the magazine decided not to run them and the editor's take on it is that the interview was a 'cry for help' and that she was 'shocked and saddened' as they had tried and failed to present Britney in 'the most flattering way'.

I am not sure who looks the worst in this whole sorry spectacle. Sure Britney has been on skid row for quite a while now and to be honest, as sad as it is, it is getting a little boring now. All we seem to see is stories of young women, who have to much money and with a fondness for excess, going off the rails: Lindsey Lohan, Paris Hilton and now Britney again.

For me it's OK Magazine who has come out the worst from this. If they were that shocked and saddened wouldn't it have made sense for them to junk the whole story - after all they have made many hundreds of thousands out of Britney already. No, not OK!. They saw a brilliant opportunity to get global publicity for their magazine which will undoubtedly boost sales. The magazine clearly demonstrates how cynical the press can be in riding off the back of a young woman in pain.

Aussie Rules!

Today a colleague forwarded a chain mail to me that caused some debate in the office. It wasn't your run-of-the mill chain mail; no 'pass this on for good luck' etc. No this little missive started as follows:

"Muslims who want to live under Islamic Sharia law were told on Wednesday to get out of Australia, as the government targeted radicals in a bid to head off potential terror attacks. A day after a group of mainstream Muslim leaders pledged loyalty to Australia and her Queen at a special meeting with Prime Minister John Howard, he and his Ministers made it clear that extremists would face a crackdown. Treasurer Peter Costello, seen as heir apparent to Howard, hinted that some radical clerics could be asked to leave the country if they did not accept that Australia was a secular state, and its laws were made by parliament. 'If those are not your values, if you want a country which has Sharia law or a theocratic state, then Australia is not for you', he said on National Television...."

Howard was quoted as saying 'This culture has been developed over two centuries of struggles, trials and victories by millions of men and women who have sought freedom. We speak mainly ENGLISH, not Spanish, Lebanese, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, or any other language. Therefore, if you wish to become part of our society. Learn the language!'

Quite ironic from a nation that is born out of immigration you might think! While some may agree with some of these sentiments and the Australians have right to freedom of speech the worrying thing was how this was all communicated: The mail ended "Maybe if we circulate this amongst ourselves, citizens will find the backbone to start speaking and voicing the same truths! If you agree please SEND THIS TO EVERYBODY YOU KNOW"

This almost seems inciteful of more action and leaves quite a scary undertone. At best it is devisive. This leaves me to question where do we draw the line when it comes to freedom of speech. In this instance I think the line has been crossed.

Cameron's Rainy Day

  David Cameron, Leader of the Opposition, and previous darling of Middle England, is starting to see his popularity dwindle. Cameron had been doing really well in the polls when Blair was still the UK PM and many had predicted that the incoming Gordon Brown would be even less popular with his dour, Scottish demeanor. Cameron looked set to totally dominate and emerge smiling and (young) Blair-like as the next likely PM.

And then it rained in the UK. In fact it rained like never before and it seems like half the country is flooded with the other half threatened with flooding. Gordon Brown hot-foots it down to the disaster scenes, offers comfort , praise for the fire services and positive action points. Cameron on the other hand jets out to Rwanda where he is pushing his comittment to ending global poverty.

Cameron, as a result, has come in for heaps of criticism for abandoning Britain in a crisis. Now I believe in this cause as much as the next person and it is true that this trip had been organised way in advance and to cancel would have caused much grief (if not offence). He was right to stick to his committments.

What beggars belief is that he didn't front up the inevitable criticism BEFORE he went by creating a proactive media campaign explaining his reasons for going. Instead, by taking the lazy approach and letting his people speak for him, he has made a tactical error and laid himself wide open as a target. It is especially surprising that his PR people haven't been advising him better particularly in the light of the Conservative MPs recent behaviour (like a bag of cats) with some of them even calling for no-confidence votes on Cameron.

Is All Publicity Good Publicity?

On my last night in the UK before I set off for Vegas I went to the launch party of my good friend Susannah Jones's latest book 'A Missing Person's Guide to Love'. Su and I lived together at University and the party was a great opportunity to meet with a lot of our old friends and catch up.

It was also a great opportunity to meet with members of the literary community (particularly crime writers) and I ended up talking to a group of well known authors who were debating whether the most gory, horrific and violent scenes were mostly written by men. The argument was never resolved.

One of our midst was Helen Zahavi who had written the cult (iconic in Brighton) book 'Dirty Weekend' which subsequently was made into a film directed by Micael Winner starring Ian Richardson and David McCallum. When her book came out the critics savaged her for its violent content. Interestingly they made more of a personal attack on her for having written it, rather than critique the book itself.

Helen found this hard to accept and it clearly was not a nice experience for her, but her publishers told her that 'all publicity is good publicity' and I guess in this case it was for them as the book gained notoriety and the sales grew.

I don't subscribe to this theory. Look at the case of Gerald Ratner, who famously proclaimed that the jewellery his chain of nationwide shops sold was "crap". Sure he was front page news and for sure the Ratner name became synonymous with jewellery - crap jewellery and he crippled his business. That particular gaffe wasn't handled at all well in the aftermath and perhaps if Ratner had been better advised he wouldn't have made the error at all.

That is why PR is so important. All publicity is not necessarily good publicity and the media can be savage.

Viva Las Vegas

Despite my pledge to the contrary my regular postings have been interrupted by a two week trip to Vegas to watch the World Series of Poker. Truly the world of poker has descended on Las Vegas and despite seeing coverage of the event from previous years nothing could really prepare me for the spectacle of thousands of poker players on hundreds of tables playing for 14 hours a day!

I had many friends in the tournament and watching them was truly nail biting and the tension at some points made me feel physically sick. So many people view poker as pure gambling, arguing that it is just the luck of the cards, but never was it more clear to me that it is a game of skill, patience and persistence. Yes luck plays a part ...but doesn't it in any sport?

Yesterday was 'bubble' day - the day when the final 10% (600-odd) cashed. It was pretty gruesome and it played out like chinese water torture as everyone kept their game tight only to climax with the vision of some grown men crying while others cheered. Some people's pain was other people's clear gain.

Now I have 2 friends left in the tournament who have made over $50,000 each and they have at least 3 days play ahead of them if they are going to make it into the big money. One is a semi-retired builder and the other a super-rich broker. Poker really gives a level playing field!

Brown Means Business

The whole Blair - Brown succession thing left me cold - it was all pretty inevitable and uninspiring. So I was realy surprised at my reaction when Brown announced that he intended to bring in talent from specialist sectors, business and other political parties to advise him on policy and major decisions. I was pleasantly surprised!

This is a really wise move: bringing in people with experience outside of your own brings clarity and perspective. Recently my colleagues in New York hired Gene Colter (an ex WSJ senior journalist). Gene had no direct PR experience but he had a heck of a lot of experience of being on the receiving end of people like me! It was a risk..but the risk paid off in spades. Gene has within months made a significant and easily measurable difference to  our business on many levels.

This weekend I conducted a mini straw poll of my friends to assess their views of our new PM. Most were cynical, all pretty much indifferent and unanimous in their dislike (but reluctant acceptance of) the new Labour premier. I wonder if this is more to do with Brown's lack of 'Blair Flair' than with his actual personal manifesto (which seems to me far more sensible than his predecessor's).

Whatever happens his record will speak for itself but I am willing to give him a go (I am by no means a Labour die-hard). He has had a hard couple of days with terrorist attacks overshadowing all his intended moves. And recruiting specialists like Lord Stevens as his security advisor may well be Brown's making....

I'm in trouble....

Honestly I had no idea how many people read my blog! Most of the time I see it as a little log for myself...what I think about things as they happen etc.. Mostly I thought only my mum and dad read it out of family loyalty! So when a number of people told me they were disappointed I hadn't updated my blog for a while I was really surprised.

OK - this is a blog about blogging. To be honest I haven't felt like blogging recently at all. I have gone through a few bad experiences and have been very reluctant to be a public bleeding heart about them!But when a few people - clients and friends - said that they missed my regular musings I felt a bit guilty...after all a blog is supposed to be a running commentary and not just some random catalogue entry. So I am determined now to keep it up to date.

Part of the problem with my blog is that mostly I comment on the media and PR industries: I find it hard to limit myself to that.. so now I will just comment and not limit myself!

Bottom line - I am so pleased so many of you like reading what I write - it is a total revelation and a huge motivation....so please comment!!!!