As I remember it I caught flak for this story in The Australian which was part of this one. In cutting the original in two Noel Turnbull’s comments, below, appeared in both stories by accident and gave one spinner an opportunity to knock me. FLAKS, spin doctors, the enemy, the dark side. These are just some of the phrases journalists use to describe those in the public relations industry. Noel Turnbull, chairman of leading local PR firm Turnbull Porter Novelli, […]
Month: August 2005
The Australian: Churn me right round, baby
If ad agencies were stressed then, as I wrote in The Australian, what is it like in 2005? ADVERTISING has always been an insecure place to work. But with gruelling office hours and job insecurity driven by a constant shuffling of accounts between a few of the bigger agencies, staff turnover is often four times the average for business in general. Even in current hard times when many agencies are cutting jobs, it is a problem to retain the right […]
The Australian: How PR runs the shady world of damage control
I’m not sure this story was too popular with PRs.The real confession was that my client was a leading tobacco company. We used to train their sales reps from french West Africa and work with a leading securtrity company in running crsis management workshops. From The Australian September 2001. CONFESSION time. I used to be a PR consultant. One client paid my British-based employer $250,000 a year to maintain a watching brief; to keep them out of the press. One […]
The Australian: Government’s ad spend a taxing issue
Another Government ad campaign by Ted Horton. Another Furore. This article for The Australian looked at whether the Howard government spent too much on its advertising in 2000. It’s worth revisiting. DON’T smoke. Don’t take drugs. Don’t drink and drive. Pay taxes, get private health cover — vote. The chant of a nanny government costs each Australian about $4 a year. A total of $72 million is spent on government advertising in an average year — until an election nears.In […]
The Australian: Crisis of confidence
Remember August 2001. Even priot to 9/11 it was pretty depressing for any white collar worker. Even in advertising. But there again, for as long as I can remember ad agencies have been moaning about how little money they make. In the wake of last year’s Olympics bonanza, advertising agencies are struggling I wrote for The Australian. WHEN marketers get cold feet, advertising agencies seem to catch a nasty dose of the flu. This bug is easily passed on. The […]
The Australian: the high price of government
Back in November 2001 I ran the rule over political advertising for The Australian’s Media section. The difficult thing at the time was trying to work out what exactly spent on advertising, PR, leaflets et.c.Crikey has been covering Senator Eric Abetz’s attack on the Clerk of the seante, Harry Evans over the Industrial relations reform ads. PRIME Minister John Howard’s attempt to repair damage from the leak of a highly critical memo written by Liberal Party president Shane Stone in […]
Designer kitchen on a budget
From Tomato Magazine. Catherine Zeta Jones has one. So does the wife Brit super chef Gordon Ramsay. But until recently few Aussies have discovered the joys of the flat pack kitchen, made famous by Ikea. UK design guru Terence Conran is a fan of Ikea, and who can blame him?
AFR Boss: negotiating tips
These tips still do it. From AFR Boss late 2002. Negotiating tips Know the rules “The number-one mistake is that most people go into negotiations with a different mindset to a trade-off mindset,” says Melbourne Business School’s Mara Olekalns. “You get faulty process when somebody doesn’t understand the rules.” She says compromise is not necessarily the game. “Staying is always a bit harder.” Know your power, even if you are coming from a position of weakness. “The fact that somebody […]
Let us know your thoughts
Foodchain may have lost David Jones almost $40 million in operating expenses, write-downs and provisions in 2002, but that doesn’t stop us noticing one thing the gourmet food stores are getting right: providing noticeboards on which customers can comment on the service and products. The boards invite customers to take a moment to “let us know your thoughts about us”.