PR Week Echo Columns

The media have had a celebrity feeding frenzy with Ms Spears apparently happy to supply the feast. Dumping a husband by text, constant partying

For a company calling itself the world’s favourite airline, BA has recently attracted some heavyweight enemies. Its refusal to let employee Nadia Eweida wear a cross showing her Christian faith plunged the airline into a religious and political storm.

Announcing Ofcom’s decision to ban the advertising of high fat, salt and sugar products (HFSS) during children’s television broadcasts, CEO Ed Richards asserted that the rulings were “significant but proportionate”,

News of NTL’s tentative bid for ITV prompted a loud and collective guffaw in the next day’s papers: “Wedding of the year for ITV? You couldn’t make it up!”

Tom Cruise’s new appointment as the boss of United Artists, the dormant independent film makers’ studio, provided the fading celebrity with some much-needed good headlines:

Madonna, the self-styled queen of pop publicly lashed out at the world's media last week, in response to the controversy generated by her adoption of Malawian baby, David Banda.

Last week’s announcement that Tata would be acquiring Corus, formerly British Steel...

A conference at the opening of a new Centre for Security and Crime Science at University College of London (UCL) highlighted how science and technology are helping to fight the threat of terrorism...

The signing of Kate Moss to design fashion lines for Top Shop should have been a major business coup for Sir Philip Green, head of Arcadia Group, "a masterstroke - teaming up the most famous face in fashion with one of the coolest high street names"...

The proposed extension of on-the-spot £100 fines to include assault, drunkenness and threatening behaviour, mooted as part of a wider initiative by the Lord Chancellor to speed up the justice...

Richard Branson "rebel billionaire" (Hemscott, 21/9), once again threw Virgin into the limelight with a pledge of £1.6 billion over ten years to tackle the issue of climate change...

Reaction to the Churches' Advertising Network's latest advertising campaign revealed surprising differences between the media and the church...

Sainsbury's attracted solid media review of its 'compostable' packaging initiative...

News that Ford was selling Aston Martin, maker of the iconic car driven by 007, was met with an almost Bond-like insouciance in the media...

Michael O'Leary, Ryanair's "outspoken" Chief Executive (Guardian, 18/8), succeeded in generating considerable attention for his condemnation of the Government's new airport security regime...

Pundits were under no illusions what David Beckham's omission from England's friendly against Greece...

Insurance company MoreThan generated solid coverage of its new DriveTime policy for young drivers last week...

Kazaa's #61 million settlement to the record companies last week appeared to signal an important victory...

Rosneft's Russian juggernaut appeared unstoppable last week, as it sought its first IPO on the London / Moscow Stock Exchanges...

Speculation heightened this week over the launch of an 'iPod killer MP3 player' by software giant Microsoft...

If G8 leaders were hoping that events in Germany would give them licence to sunbathe, they'd reckoned without Bob Geldof. A year on from Gleneagles, Geldof, in self-confessed 'Saint Bob' mode, warned leaders of the world's richest nations not to renege on their commitments to Africa...

Coverage revealed no clear leader in the media propaganda war between supermarket retailer Asda and the GMB union in their dispute over national collective bargaining...

Powergen spun positive coverage out of potentialy damaging issues last week, as it announced it was to pull the plug on its Indian call centres, "Energy giant brings calls back to UK" (Glasgow Evening Times, 15/6)...

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence's (NICE) decision, to approve the breast cancer drug Herceptin, was lauded with the headline: "It's good news time" (Mail on Sunday, 11/06).

Boon or bone of contention - that was the verdict on BBC's announcement that it would be broadcasting live the World Cup games it has rights to on its own BBC Sport website.

Last week's publication of the official report into the 'elephant man' drug trials brought scant comfort to Parexel, the organisation behind the "disastrous" (Guardian, 26/5) testing of drug TGN1412. Finding that the negative effects of the drug, which left six healthy adults with mutiple organ failure and swelling, were due to an unexpected biological effect rather than any error by Parexel, the report criticised sloppy administration procedures, a lack of adequate training and experience of staff, no 24 hour cover, inadequate insurance cover and a delay in appropriate counter treatment.

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the three Princes' interview with Ant and Dec was just how unremarkable the Royals appeared to be. The unprecedented interview with Charles, William and Harry to mark the 30th anniversary of the Prince's Trust successfully revealed how ordinary and down to earth the Princes are, despite being variously perceived out-of-touch, grumpy and yobbish. The "heart-warming anecdotes of Windsor family domesticity" (Times, 19/5) included Harry and Wills' arguments about the remote control, how rubbish they are at cooking, their taste in music, and how much they enjoy reality TV. "'Princes 'watch Pop Idol!'" (viewlondon.co.uk, 19/5); "Royals reveal rows over remote" (bbc.co.uk, 19/5) ran the anodyne headlines. Nothing negative, nothing controversial there: "Hey! Look at them! They're just like us" noted Megastar.co.uk (19/5).

The Da Vinci Code scarcely required the additional promotion afforded by its forthcoming world premiere at the glamorous Cannes Film Festival. The film, based on Dan Brown's best-selling novel, is "already one of the most anticipated movies of the year and set to be a worldwide hit" (Sunday Mirror, 14/5). Indeed, the film's release at Cannes undoubtedly gave a boost to the festival itself, which in recent years has attracted criticism for being "too French" (The Scotsman, 12/5). "'The Da Vinci Code' brings snap, crackle and pop culture to Cannes" (Monsters&Critics.com, 15/5).

Headlines were personal last week, as TV presenter, celebrity and Soduku ace Carol Voderman came under pressure to drop her advertising contract with FirstPlus, the loan consolidation company. "Sorry Carol, these loans just don't add up", said the Guardian (6/5), while the Daily Record simply stated, "Not much credit for TV Carol" (5/5).

The Buckingham Palace Press Office must be basking in a soft rosy glow. The launch last week of Prince Harry's AIDS orphans' charity, hard on the heels of his passing out from Sandhurst, produced a slew of good headlines for the young Royal: "Harry is prince of hearts" (The Sun, 28/4), "Harry helps Africa" (Megastar.co.uk), "Harry follows in his mother's footsteps" (Daily Mail, 28/4). Diana's commitment to HIV positive children, and Harry's pledge to continue her legacy was heavily talked up: "With his gentle grip and a genuine touching smile, Prince Harry shows he is every inch his mother's son" noted The Sun (28/4), in unusually saccharine prose.

When the problematic Child Support Agency hit the headlines again there was little PR gold in the Government's stable left to spin. Early suggestions that their IT contractor should take the rap were accounted for in, just part, of the opposition's assault. While the late arrival, cost and ongoing problems of EDS' IT system were noted, it was the CSA's overall management that came under most brutal attack...

As with every other change to the Radio 4 schedule, Sue Lawley's announcement that she would leave Desert Island Discs in August was greeted with alarm and incredulity. " After 19 years, Lawley deserts her island" (Independent, 13/4), " Lawley to cast away from Desert Island Discs" (Guardian, 13/4) read the valedictory headlines, prompting Megastar's comment that the papers were acting " like the poor gal has just popped her clogs" ...

There's nothing like a good jobs scare to make the headlines, as BAE Systems found out last week when it announced it was selling its 20% stake in Airbus. " Jobs fears in Airbus sale" (Sun, 7/4), " Jobs fears over Airbus"(Sky News, 7/4), " Job fears as BAE confirm sale talks" (Daily Mail, 7/4) ran the unanimous headlines, despite some recognition that BAE, Airbus UK and the Government had " gone out of their way to allay such fears" (Daily Telegraph, 8/4)...

Expect a rugby scrum in Cannes this week as TV execs from around the world attempt to land the jackpot by buying the worldwide rights to Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, the British television show hosted by Chris Tarrant and owned by Ulsterman Paul Smith and comedian Jasper Carrott. Credited with " transforming the fortunes of ITV within months of its launch"(Daily Express, 31 March), the global phenomenon spawned a host of successful format shows that have been sold around the world...

Rod Aldridge dashed to distance himself from his company, amid the raging political “cash for ermine row” (The Business Online, 26/3), as a means of deflecting negative publicity and adverse speculation away from Capita. “It was simply because of this (… damaging criticism) that he resigned" (Telegraph, 26/3) asserted one unnamed Labour donor. It was an action appreciated by some…

If Dame Anita Roddick hoped the media would share her enthusiasm for the £652m sale of the Body Shop to L'Oreal, she must be disappointed. Despite her protestations that she was not selling out the Body Shop, with its " campaigning, being maverick, changing the rules of business" (Independent, 19/3) mix of brand and ethics, many commentators were taken aback by its unlikely marriage with a global conglomerate...

Tesco stood up well against the onslaught of reports covering the Office of Fair Trading's (OFT) likely referral of UK supermarkets to the Competition Commission. "Supermarkets face dominance probe"(bbc.co.uk, 9/3). As market leader, Tesco was the most targeted player in the grocery arena. While The Sun reported that, "The OFT does appear to have Tesco in its sights"(10/3), others left little room for doubt over the giant's position...

The crowning last week of Sir Menzies Campbell as Liberal Democrat leader finally put the party back on a positive footing after the string of revelations sparked by Charles Kennedy's resignation in January. Widely seen as " the safe bet, the comfort zone, the elegant, hot water bottle candidate" (Guardian, 2/3), Sir Menzies was careful to stress that as well as bringing strong leadership to the party, he would also overhaul its organisation and policies, take risks and generally confound expectations that he would be a caretaker leader. The headlines reflected his success: " He's bloody resilient. He's competitive, he's tough"(Guardian, 3/3), " Ming's moment" (The Times, 3/3), " Menzies: Here for keeps" (The Sun, 6/3)...

It should have been a good week for British sport last week. Shelley Rudman's unexpected silver medal in the skeleton bob contained all the elements of a good media story - unknown female talent overcomes a lack of funding to take silver in a sport most of us have never heard of. " Rudman was in Turin only because of a whipround at her local pub" noted The Times (17/2); " Fame and fortune beckon for the girl on a tea tray" (Daily Telegraph, 18/2); " Consider that Britain does not even have a full bobsleigh track and it is Rudman's first full season on the top level circuit, and you begin to realise how remarkable her skeleton medal was" (bbc.co.uk, 17/2)...

For 13 long years, the Child Support Agency stood beleagued by constant cries of anxiety from the very people it was set up to assist. It saw a battery of IT & telecoms revisionism and Government reviews. Last week, it stood three billion pounds in debt with a backlog of 330,000 cases...

Blackberry maker RIM scored some important victories last week in the latest twist of its longstanding patent dispute with Luxembourg-based InPro. The announcement that the UK High Court had ruled in its favour generated some highly favourable headlines: "Another patent victory for Blackberry" (PC Advisor.3/2), "RIM wins patent case in the UK" (Techworld, 3/6), "Brits can hang on to their Blackberrys" (ABCMoney.co.uk, 2.2), which appeared to grant a stay of execution for the Blackberry service, under threat of total blackout...

The launch of "Bono's Red Revolution"(FT, 28/1) at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week, referred not to the creation of a stable of Red branded products and services from some of the world's most "iconic companies"(Bobby Shriver - Red, ABC Money 28/1), nor even to the initiative to hand over a proportion of their sales to the Global Fund, to further its fight against endemic diseases in the world's poorer nations...

Live by the sword, die by the sword? The protest group which raised public awareness of fathers' access rights with headline-grabbing superhero stunts was last week brought down by its favourite medium. Wednesday's front page of The Sun exposed an alleged Fathers for Justice fringe plot to kidnap Leo Blair, and brought about the disbanding of the group: " Blair plot spells the end for 'Men in Tights'" (Times, 18/1), " Fathers' group axed after Leo plot" (Sky News, 18/1). Yet despite being portrayed as "a mateurish, angry and extremely annoying" (Times, 21/1) there was considerable respect for what F4J had achieved: " the issue of fatherhood rights and responsibilities has a currency … unimaginable three years ago" (Times, 21/1)...

Luton Football Club boss Mike Newell dropped a bombshell at the launch of Coca-Cola's 'Win a Player 2' competition. Newell claimed that 'bungs' were rife and that he himself had been offered cash to sell his best players. Newell angered a group of high-powered agents. The newly formed Football Agents Association told Newell he needed hard evidence for his accusations leading to the headline "Put up or shut up, agents tell Newell"(Daily Mail 12/1)...

As political gambles go, George Galloway's entry into Celebrity Big Brother seems to be right up there with Charles Kennedy's confession to liking a drink. Will it, as Galloway hopes, provide him with a " Heineken" (Guardian, 7/1) opportunity to influence young voters about the Iraq war, or will unforeseen events in the BB hothouse and its " nudity, intoxicated sex and swearing" (Independent, 6/1) damage the maverick MP beyond repair?...

Despite hailing New Year Tube strike "a success"(bbc.co.uk, 1/1/06), the RMT union must have been disappointed by its limited impact on London's celebrations. Rather than the predicted turmoil, " London Tube strike deadlock leaves revellers facing chaos"(Edinburgh Evening News, 31/1205), Ken Livingstone referred to the industrial action as a "non event"(Scotsman, 1/1/06)...