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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]