The WPost had some fun this week with a communications plan drafted by a Bush appointee to the Customs and Border Protection Bureau.
In the plan, Kristi Clemens, assistant commissioner in the Bureaus’s public affairs division, exhorted public affairs staff to:
“Reassure the citizens of the United States … Repeat the message. . . . Repeat until we are completely exhausted by it.”
But Ms. Clemens was backpedalling at about 60 mph once higher-ups in the Homeland Security organization found out about her work:
“I developed a draft communications plan intended to spur debate on how we could effectively communicate some of our recent border security improvements and more efficiently structure CBP public affairs’ activities which are spread out across the country,” Clemens said in a statement. “The draft plan was an internal CBP product that was never shared outside of my staff nor executed.”
Public affairs staffers in governments around the world can feel the warmth in the pleasant, but backhanded, compliment for Clemens’ work from her Deputy Secretary, James Loy, who described the plan as a:
“piece likely produced by well-meaning, enterprising public affairs folks.”
Ouch. Am I the only one visualizing Gomer Pyle or Corporal Klinger?
Take one upstart but successful Canadian literary magazine - the Walrus. Add a disgruntled former editor from another Canadian literary magazine - Robert Fulford of Saturday Night, now of Toronto Life. Throw in the accomplished son of a Canadian literary icon as commentator - Noah Richler.
What do you get?
“The Walrus,” [Fulford] writes, “has a serious problem and its name is Ken Alexander,” who – wait for it – “holds his job only because he brings with him his old family money.”
As a result of [Walrus founder] Alexander’s efforts, the Walrus offers far more interesting, far more necessary stuff than the perpetually tired pages of Saturday Night.
But what do you really think, Noah?
Alexander … committed a major Canadian faux pas when he behaved like someone who believed he could do better than the small pool of apparently proven trade staff from which Canadian custom says he should hire – “proven,” in this instance, merely meaning that the departed worked on various incarnations of magazines that have consistently, um, failed.
Should pharmaceutical companies blog? Pharmaceutical Executive magazine took a quick look at the idea this month.
We were down for about 36 hours. Lesson learned? Never let your webguy go on vacation.
Kahlua, by taking a risk buying ad time during ABC’s unproven Dangerous Housewives, seems to have gotten in on the ground floor of a growing marketing phenomenon.
Apparently, marketers are now questioning their demographic stereotypes about suburban moms, fevered in the realization that the suburbs may in fact be seeded with heavy drinking, fast living and loosely clothed mamas.
“It’s the natural evolution of Generation X,” says marketing expert Ann Fishman, president of Generational Targeted Marketing. “They are able to go from Sex and the City to married in the suburbs very easily. . . . The biggest mistake (marketers) could make is to think that today’s suburban housewife is a younger version of yesterday’s suburban housewife.” (USA Today)
The apparent difference? Today’s suburban housewife is far more willing to throw the mad money down for an expensive fleece vest, store label wood-fired goat cheese pizza, a pair of Manolo Blahniks, or socially ambitious liqueurs. It’s not all about the easy convenience of the Swiffer, Oreck 2000 or the UPS guy.
To me, it was obvious that Generation X was slowing down and moving to the ‘burbs when the Bob and Jack radio formats became popular. When David Byrne, the English Beat and Joe Jackson start showing up during drive time, you know Generation X is spending more time in the van.
Actually, I think you’d find that yesteryear’s suburban mom was equally conniving, duplicitous and lusty: key parties are just one uncomfortable reminder of how your parents used to spend their Saturday night.
A tremendous broadcaster and champion of fringe andalternative music, John Peel passed away of a heart attack while on a “working vacation” in Peru.
His BBC1 shows and “Peel Sessions” featured bands as diverse as U2, Nirvana, The Velvet Underground, Roxy Music, Rod Stewart, Pink Floyd, The Sex Pistols and T-Rex.
Paul Kedrosky has an amusing (and revealing) exchange from last night’s Google earnings call.
This week, PRWeek UK discusses the opportunities lurking in the tightly focused audiences served by community radio.
Community radio stations, in the UK context, “have to meet extremely strict criteria, the core of which is that they exist for social gain, to serve a specific community, whether defined by geography, ethnicity, gender or age.” In North America, you might approach universities, low power alternative stations, ethnic stations or pirate radio outfits.
But remember - you can’t make a blind pitch to these outlets. They are run by dedicated local staff who know their audiences intimately. They may not be pr-saavy, but they do know how to reach your target audience. Some thoughts:
- a story is important, because their work is”about communities making radio, not radio broadcasting to communities”
- while the radio station may not reach millions, it may speak to the thousands in your target audience
- you have to listen - to be familiar with the station’s tone and style - to tailor your pitch appropriately
- most of these stations aren’t commercial, so you’re more likely to place public information, health, safety and event-related stories
The kicker? As nation-wide chains move to standard music-only formats, there will be less outlets to pitch and fewer opportunities to place stories. Community, not-for-profit and alternative radio stations actually still schedule public affairs programming - and not at 5am in the morning.
While some scientists may be lacking people skills, a stained labcoat and corrective lenses should not prompt PR folk to discount their work and strongly-held positions when developing a pitch and communications materials.
Some scientists working for one US government agency have begun to speak out about what they see as unwarranted revisions and spin by senior officials and public affairs staffers:
“Political appointees have regularly revised news releases on climate from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, altering headlines and opening paragraphs to play down the continuing global warming trend.
The changes are often subtle, but they consistently shift the meaning of statements away from a sense that things are growing warmer in unusual ways.
The pattern has appeared in reports from other agencies as well.
Several sets of drafts and final press releases from NOAA on temperature trends were provided to The Times by government employees who said they were dismayed by the practice.
On Aug. 14, 2003, a news release summarizing July temperature patterns began as a draft with this headline: “NOAA reports record and near-record July heat in the West, cooler than average in the East, global temperature much warmer than average.”
When it emerged from NOAA headquarters, it read: “NOAA reports cooler, wetter than average in the East, hot in the West.” (NYT)
Now, in this case dedicated scientists believe their findings are being undersold and misidentified. Usually, they find the media is too eager to zoom in on the sensational aspects of otherwise serious public interest science - like the study If You Drop It, Should You Eat It? Scientists Weigh In on the 5-Second Rule or An Analysis of the Forces Required to Drag Sheep over Various Surfaces.
Some scientists, however, see popular reknown as key to communicating their findings and their personal agendas. Think David Suzuki or Stephen Hawking - people who developed a personal brand while pursuing scientific goals. For others, popularity is a product of their academic strengths - their professional research and publication output is directly reflected in their Googlerank.
As for those communicators and scientists who need help translating esoteric concepts into popular analogies? Earlier this year, the Pfizer Journal (sure, a bit of self-interest for the firm there, but still interesting) ran an entire issue examining The Story of Science: Health Care and the Media
Up here in Canada, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council has prepared a very useful primer: Communicating Science to the Public: A Handbook for Researchers
A little bit of to-and-fro’ing this morning between WWD and the Times. The Grey Lady seizes a chance to take a swipe at comments made last week by a WWD correspondent about the latest YSL collection.
Why point this out to you, the reader?
- The original WWD quote nails a visual in 16 words.
- In typically NY style, the Times has taken pains to point out that WWD had their geography wrong - by 20 street numbers.
- There’s actually a reference to the photographer - a normally unacknowledged partner in these reports.
- It’s a beautiful gotcha.
Last week, Women’s Wear Daily, reviewing the Yves Saint Laurent collection, said that the designer Stefano Pilati became “woefully lost at a crossroads between the Saint Laurent archive and mid-80’s 530 Seventh Avenue.” The newspaper was correct about Mr. Pilati’s debut show, but a little off with the address. Those ungainly looks surfaced in the late 60’s, left, at 550 Seventh Avenue, in the showroom of Norman Norell. Bill Cunningham, the photographer for The New York Times, said he had that déjà vu feeling when he saw Mr. Pilati’s awkward proportions. He should know. He photographed them at Norell.
Jon Stewart made an appearance on CNN’s Crossfire on Friday. Paul Begala and Tucker Carlson probably thought Stewart was there to pump his new book.
Admirably, Stewart took the occasion to take some lumps for his outspoken stance on the poor quality of political reporting in the United States today. I don’t think Begala and Carlson were expecting his left hooks, though. (Transcript)
STEWART: I thought Al Sharpton was very impressive …
STEWART: I enjoyed his way of speaking.
I think, oftentimes, the person that knows they can’t win is allowed to speak the most freely, because, otherwise, shows with titles, such as CROSSFIRE.
BEGALA: CROSSFIRE.
STEWART: Or “HARDBALL” or “I’m Going to Kick Your Ass” or…
(LAUGHTER)
STEWART: Will jump on it. In many ways, it’s funny. And I made a special effort to come on the show today, because I have privately, amongst my friends and also in occasional newspapers and television shows, mentioned this show as being bad.
(LAUGHTER)
BEGALA: We have noticed.
STEWART: And I wanted to — I felt that that wasn’t fair and I should come here and tell you that I don’t — it’s not so much that it’s bad, as it’s hurting America.
Oh, there’s more, much more, in the transcript.
Michael Monroe may be the youngest congressional candidate in the U.S., and the Washington Monthly drops a good chunk of text speaking to him. What’s interesting, however, is the accompanying graphic (that doesn’t get reproduced online) on “The Zoology of Swing Voters.”
The two page table breaks down the demos targeted by every politico this year and identifies them by characteristics. Here are two:
Lies to Pollsters About:
Sex & The City voters: their age.
Office Park Dads: their income.
Security Moms: whether they voted the last time.
NASCAR Dads: “I’m really busy now.”
The Stern Gang: not living with their parents.
Freestyle Evangelicals: church attendance.
Thinks Blogs Are:
Sex & The City voters: pink.
Office Park Dads: something in the supply closet.
Security Moms: threatening.
NASCAR Dads: French.
The Stern Gang: gay.
Freestyle Evangelicals: God’s children, too.
Rod Taylor writes in Promo about the recent history of the bobblehead doll. Apparently, they really help put bums in seats and move consumer goods.
Here’s a little NBA feature on the dolls as well.
David Akin, who reports for the CTV network and writes for the Globe and Mail, is speaking to a conference of IP lawyers in Banff today (an earlier version of this post said Calgary. Banff is much nicer). His notes, available online, naturally speak to the complications reporters face when covering legal issues and court cases.
He also emphasizes - quite strongly - that lawyers should build longstanding and professional relationships with the select group of reporters covering their specialty areas or high profile clients.
… just as with any relationship, trust is at the heart of a good
source-reporter relationship. Those of you who deal with reporters regularly already know this. You need to trust that, if we put you into a story, we won’t, first of all, misrepresent your views or, worse, get them wrong. You need to trust us that we won’t make you look silly. This is particularly important, of course, in TV news, where we’re going to see what you look like in addition to
hearing what you have to say. On our side of the ledger, we need to trust our sources to be credible, to know that they won’t make us look silly.
Another interesting snippet, that should be printed on a card and handed to every boring VP of Engineering who insists on being the only spokesperson:
…sources to us are particularly valuable if they are interesting. We don’t necessarily need our sources to be amongst the top of their game in their field. Particularly for television news but often just as much in print, we’d rather have sources who are also good at telling interesting stories than a dull, plodding pedant who may the top-ranked professional in the business.
Almost every year, students in an international-relations class at Duke University’s summer program for gifted students are given an assignment by their instructor, Mark Duckenfield: writing letters to the editor of the New York Times.
These students had no success, until this year. 29 students in the 2004 summer program succeeded in placing 17 letters in the esteemed paper in one month.
As the students themselves told the New Yorker, the secret is in your written voice:
Katie, a sixteen-year-old from Lexington, Kentucky, has advice for anyone hoping to get a letter published in the Times:“In such a small space, your letter has to convey a lot of passion. You really have to care about what you’re saying.” “They get a lot of letters that are really formal,” Riaz, sixteen, of Alpharetta, Georgia, says. “When they hear letters that are frank and in a common voice, they like that.”
“But you have to sound intelligent,” Chris, sixteen, from Lansing, Kansas, notes. “You can’t write it on a third-grade level, because the New York Times isn’t a third-grade-level paper. It’s for a more sophisticated kind of person—at least, that’s what I believe.”
Also mentioned in Romenesko.
The Guardian and Brand Republic have reported that McDonald’s is planning to drop the iconic “M” logo from a new and exensive advertising campaign in Britain. The campaign launch was intended for this Friday, but marketing plans leaked out early.
Billboard posters to be unveiled on Friday will include close-up photographs of fresh salad and fruit pieces - all nestling beside that ever-present question mark. A strapline reads: “McDonald’s. But not as you know it.”
The campaign is backed by booklets detailing new menus which will be sent to 17 million households.
Among the tempting treats on offer are the grilled chicken flatbread, six varieties of salad leaves and, for breakfast, low-fat carrot cake, porridge or a toasted bagel topped with cream cheese.
Mmmmm! Porridge. A healthy and visually appealing entree! McDonald’s is taking extraordinary steps to reach out to their customer base and dilute the growing perception that the chain is all about fat, fries and frosted treats. Where would that impression have come from? Not from the chain that sells St. Paddy’s Day green milkshakes!
Of course, the agency and in-house ad experts are upbeat about the campaign:
Brave enough, or desperate enough? In the last year, McDonald’s UK has seen its profits drop by 75%.
How will Hollywood screenwriters, already working furiously on fart jokes, the development of hot yet empathic characters, screeching road chases and heart-rendering finales, manage to drop references to OTC drugs into their scripts?
We should have seen it coming. It’s a very small conceptual step from placing the new squeezable ketchup in a child’s hand during a movie to Leslie Nielsen pushing cholesterol-reducing drugs - while eating a chili dog.
As Simon Williams, president and CEO of the Sterling Group, tells Pharmaceutical Executive this month:
…Marketers should also ask if the drug’s target market will watch the movie. Obviously, there is no purpose in mentioning Lipitor if high-cholesterol sufferers aren’t watching …
I would never expect the pharma industry to be an early adopter of this practice, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it becomes a disproportionately important avenue for building brand awareness for drugs within the next five years—because it gets people when they are engaged.
Companies like Pfizer, which run such huge brands and have some of the smartest marketers in the country, are looking at how to apply product placement. I suspect that the rest of the industry will also not want to miss out on any genuine established marketing communication vehicle.
Oh yeah. We can’t forget advertising agencies who, their budgets squeezed and their commissions lowered, will jump through figurative and literal FDA hoops to cash in on this gravy train.
I can hear the discussion at a 2006 pharma sales meeting now: “Well, the opening weekend take was $36M, and we saw a 12% uptick in sales over the following week.” All the result of informed decision-making, of course. The on-package coupon distributed with every theatre soft drink will probably help as well.
PR pros have learned through the pain and embarassment of past mistakes not to post or email a document without ensuring all the editing codes are removed. Do you really want your poor grammar or waffling on key policy points exposed to your harshest critics?
Apparently, the staff responsible for posting Canada’s recent Speech from the Throne (our State of the Union Address) had to learn this lesson the hard way.
For at least a day after Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson delivered the opening address of the 38th Parliament on Tuesday, the draft was available to anyone willing to download it from the Web and expose unedited sections using a common word-processing program. (Globe and Mail)
What’s this about a relaunch for the Dandy comics? I relished picking up Dandy and Beano as a child living overseas. The crude jokes, the true-to-life hooligans, ne’er-do-wells and braunnosers; characters that rang true to me. Sure, circulation is down - by about 1,900,000 copies. But what sort of changes are these?
Smasher is gone, replaced by a kid with big sister problems? Desparate Dan has been slimmed down?
… he has no gun. His holster’s still there, but it looks like one of those fabulously over-designed belt-worn mobile phone pouches that went in and out of fashion sometime in 1995.
Ugh. Dan sounds like a metrosexual. Or a European tourist. (As the Glasgow Daily Record sniped: “I’m Fancy Dan!” Or how about Leeds Today’s “I’m not half the Dan I used to be…“?)
Of course DC Thomson, the publisher, swears that this new direction is informed by “in-depth research” designed to make Dandy more appealing to the essential 7 to 11 year-old reader demo. Unless that research was conducted in the schoolyard and behind the chip shop by other 9 year-olds, it’s faulty.
Chances are, the survey team looked like this.
Chris Donald, former editor of Viz, an expired Dandy competitor, had a remarkably similar reaction. But he also noted that kids today have far grittier diversions to occupy their growing minds, the net being only one.
Nevertheless, the publisher is paying lip service to maintaining a rough edge in the comic.
“If we became politically correct, it would be the death of The Dandy. In fact we are gunning for political correctness,” [an executive at DC Thomson] said of the comic that revels in naughtiness. “I would stick my tongue out and blow a big raspberry at anyone who suggests we are politically correct.”
A raspberry? How 1955.
Stephane Dion is the current Minister of the Environment in the Government of Canada. Which makes his address (Sources of Media Distortion in Coverage of Political News) to a Laval University event this month all the more startling. Paul Wells translated it. Politicians, Dion tells us, are
wary of aficionados of journalistic decoding and interpretation, [and] many set about speaking in empty jargon, antiseptic discourse, a series of vague or false-bottomed declarations or stock phrases and convenient slogans. This discourse offers very little interesting material to the journalist, who is left to compensate with his analytical imagination. That imagination is in even greater danger of being subjective because the politician’s own vague and ambiguous words are subject to interpretation.
Is your company chasing down new clients in an unfamiliar ethnic market? Are you sounding out a new job in a new country or on a different continent? Or do you just have a hard time breaking through to those thick-headed engineers or lawyers?
The Harvard Business Review covers off the basics of “cultural intelligence” this month:
… it should come as no surprise that the human actions, gestures, and speech patters a person encounters in a foreign business setting are subject to an even wider range of interpretations that can make misunderstandings likely and cooperation impossible.” (HBR pay article)
You may remember my post about Mr. Happy Crack and the Dirt Cheap Chicken. I received this email yesterday:
Colin:
In response to your story on local mascots, I must emphasize that our sudden surge in votes was due to an international (and loyal) base of Mr. Happy Crack fans that support his every move. If you choose to support the Dirt Cheap Chicken over our beloved icon, I understand. Actually I don’t understand but hey, i’m a live-and-let-live kinda guy.
But since we are total media-whores, I also wanted to thank you for mentioning our fair-haired mascot. Could we reciprocate by sending you some oh-so desirable apparel?
Please provide your, um, size and fashion nirvana can be yours.
Regards,
Bob Kodner, Chairman of the Bored
The Crack Team
There are two lessons here for PR flacks and their clients:
1. Once you’ve set the tone for a PR and marketing program, remember to have that tone carry through all your activities. A humourous ad campaign will quickly fizzle if it drives prospects to a soul-deadening IVR script.
2. Always monitor what is being said about your company and your brand - whether in print, over the air, or online. The Crack team is obviously monitoring how their mascot is portrayed. Within a day of my post, I had received this email - from the President of the company!
A lighthearted approach to wooing customers will make work more enjoyable, and may just encourage favourable buzz. Just take this quote from Animal House to heart:
Boon: I gotta work on my game!
Otter: Nah, nah, don’t think of it as work. The whole point is just to enjoy yourself.
Are you a trusted source of information or a corporate parrot? Are your relationships with reporters and editors one-way, or do you work to maintain a reputation as a reliable, informative and trustworthy source of information in your industry? Are you an artist or a mechanic? Are you shooting for a string of one-time hits, or is your goal a career of continuing success and a ongoing royalty cheques?
David Byrne spoke about his relationship with Nonesuch, his new record label:
Parrotting the corporate line will get you through the day, but are you preparing for tomorrow, next month, next year? Are you a member of O-Town or Menudo?
It’s said of Delhi that a person who manages to negotiate the manic frenzy of the city’s traffic can hold his own driving in any part of the world.
So opens an Economic Times piece on competition among advertising agencies in India. Surely a non sequitur? Not for me. I learned how to drive in New Delhi traffic, careening through roundabouts in a Toyota Corolla, dodging ancient taxis and reckless scooters. The memories!
Anyway, back to the advertising theme. Living in a capital, I assume all capitals are calm, routine and sometimes backwards. Apparently not Delhi.
Santosh Desai, president, McCann-Erickson likens Delhi to the Wild West: “Since Delhi hasn’t had as much of a historical legacy as Mumbai, there is a great need to build business.
” The city and its advertising folk also do not let setbacks affect them. Param Saikia, COO, Publicis elaborates, “We are always on our toes here and expect the unexpected.
In Mumbai, typically if a deal doesn’t click, there’s a meeting held to review what went wrong. In Delhi, the attitude is built around ‘What next?’”
We often focus on the international brand mascots: Ronald, Doughboy, even the Giant. But what about the regional mascots? Smaller companies may not be fighting for precious feet of display space in markets across the country, but their marketing and PR gimmicks may mean the difference between new stores and closed stores.
Yesterday, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported on a sudden (nearly three-fold) surge in voting during their online contest for favourite St. Louis advertising icon. Apparently, the Dirt Cheap Chicken was in command of the poll until, in a 24 hour period, the vote tripled and Mr. Happy Crack took the lead for good.
Who is Mr. Happy Crack? Let’s have the corporate website speak for him:
Mr. Happy Crack - along with his trademark slogan, ‘A dry crack is a happy crack!’ - was introduced in 2002, and immediately achieved fame usually reserved for rock stars, corporate whistle-blowers and conjoined siblings.
Now, Mr. Happy Crack could have had an online advantage: he was a mini-meme earlier this year, and his image has been bouncing around for a few years. But the Dirt Cheap Chicken really deserves some credit for a targeted tag line:
“Cheap, cheap, fun, fun,” chirps the Dirt Cheap Cigarettes, Beer and Liquor chicken. “That’s right, Chicken” says [owner] Fred W. Teutenberg IV. “And remember, the more she drinks, the better you look. We are the last refuge of the persecuted smoker, and we really are grateful for your business.”
What if you were a national high fashion store, thriving upon glamour and allure and the whiff of exclusivity, and the major national paper reports that your big Toronto Film Festival bash attracted no celebrities?
Well, you’d probably try to correct the formal record - despite the model already having toppled off the runway, so to speak. That would produce this:
Many celebrities attended the Holt Renfrew party at the Toronto International Film Festival on Tuesday night. Incorrect information appeared in an item in yesterday’s Review section. (pay article in the Globe and Mail)
Now, you can parse words and argue that Jennifer Tilly, Kevin Bacon and Heather Graham aren’t the brightest “stars” in the firmament - but remember, the salient point being driven home by Holts is that “celebrities” were there. Even Pauly Shore would count.
Fine. The Director of Communications did her job. The errant scribe has been corrected. But, as the NYT pointed out today:
Ouch.
On another track: what sort of paper makes readers pay to view CORRECTIONS?
Amanda Stern (in the NYT) has some realistic advice for authors, poets, aesthetes and pretentious knobs facing their first public performance (likely in the Borders reading/conference/craft room), including:
- Do not prepare with vocal warm-ups, neck rolls or the Japanese Suzuki Method of stomping.
- Do not refer to the surrounding space as the ‘’mise en scene.'’
- Do not ask if there is Kabbalah water in the V.I.P. room.
- Be polite to the computer-geek girl who wants to discuss her novel-in-blogs.
- Do not engage the sociopath lurking in doorway.
- You’re not going to just read, are you? Have time to learn banjo?
There are many ways to arrive at a career in public relations: conscious planning, study and pursuit, a fortuitous combination of talent and education, or connections. I’ve drawn up a slightly tongue-in-cheek PR Career Planning Tree for your amusement.
Accordion Guy did a quick riff about the evolution of design (and the influence of manga) in the tracts hawked by people like Jack Chick and Tim Todd Ministries.
At the bottom of his post is a lone cartoon frame with a PR reference - and a money shot of a joke.
An aside: while searching out other material for this post, I came across a Suck.com column on Chick from 1995:
A quick Alta Vista search tells all: in the net’s grand tradition of celebrating society’s most conspicuous mindf***ers, disturbed cartoonist and ecumenical prodigy Jack Chick will likely find his face chiseled on the first VRML Mt. Rushmore - if he ever deigns to manifest himself.
Alta Vista search? VRML? Let’s put this in perspective. Most kids in high school today have never used Alta Vista.
Down in Australia, James Hardie Industries is stumbling through an asbestos compensation scandal. Public relations in such an environment is incredibly difficult - and even worse if you mishandle the media.
Ean Higgins has reported on how the Hardie PR team has stumbled through the last week (not online):
Over the past week, the company Chair has granted interviews to some newspapers, promised interviews to other electronic outlets but reneged, and has even shunned one reporter who was thought to be chasing the story too strongly.
Yesterday, the company PR rep organized a news conference with the Chair, a senior national union offical, and a victim’s representative. About 20 reporters on the beat showed up at a Sydney hotel for the event.
After a bit of wait and a tad of confusion, the PR rep said the negotiating team wanted the reporters to move to the (much smaller) negotiating room.
“Maybe you’d agree to a pool,” said [PR rep] Noble, referring to a system where some cameramen shoot film for others.
“You’ve got to be kidding — you called a press conference,” was the response.
The media pack squeezed around the participants in the negotiating room, only to be told that no questions would be allowed. As incredulity turned to rage among journalists, Hellicar [the Chair] said: “You were never promised the chance to ask questions, anyway.”
With one voice, the pack said: “Yes we were.”
© 2008 Colin McKay
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