Friday 30 April 2010

How Elections should be fought..

This is, without a doubt, my political find of the week....Definitely recommend you check this out (although nothing to do with PR) and get your revenge on politics!
Beat up Brown, Kick Cleggs ass or punch Posh Boys lights out...whatever, Enjoy!

Hopping and praying to get your vote...

My fav election pic so far...

Also Charlie Brookers article, linked below, is good for some fun post debate chatter...

Labour Supporters Campaign video

This campaign video is why it's a very bad idea to upset a top advertising/PR exec during an election campaign.... Powerful stuff, bad for the tories and Wolverhampton Council...

The Joy of Repetition really is in you...

A Round up to Round Three

Last night marked the final Leaders Debate, a concept which even I have now given up on. I spent most of it with Hot Chips, Over and Over going through my head. The joy of repetition really is in you, with the three head honchos apparently already out of new ideas. They discussed the same issues, had the same arguments and reused the same tired catchphrases from the first two debates, for those who didn't see it, you didn't miss much.

Nick Clegg did also remind me of a monkey with a miniature symbol. His, let's say we'll do what everyone wants, and let's agree with everyone else and let's get back to the question and let's do everything together, attitude makes him look increasingly weak and lacking in his own ideas. He also kept loosing his lines and coming across quite confused. If he was so sanctimonious Id almost feel sorry for him, he was probably put off by Gordons scary attempts at smiling...

Brown, was the same as ever. I would say more about him, but he just comes across as dull, and this really isn't his format. By far the best comment I heard about him for the evening was from Charlie Brooker saying he was, “in danger of turing into a “same old conservative party” novelty talking key ring”.

GB did annoy me no end by talking about 'young people' as if we are another species, that he had miraculously saved from extinction. He really hasn't a clue and I hope he doesn't truly believe he has been our saviour. His figures on youth unemployment are crocked and he doesn't realise that just giving young people jobs is not the answer. We need jobs that are suited to the degree's and training that he has insisted we all have. It seems to have escaped his notice that many graduates are working minimum wage jobs in shops etc, while their degrees rot on the shelf and they don't register in his employment stats, because technically they are employed! He really has missed the point and the sooner he goes the better!

David Cameron, although still mysteriously under-performing, won the debate. He was confident and knowledgeable and didnt waste too much time. He did however have a very shiny face. I know this is silly, but it did mean that when they discussed renewable energy, all I could do was imagine getting a solar panel and using the reflection from it as a renewable energy source!

Overall, the room was echoey, nothing new was said and David Dimbleby kept repeating the questions as if we all had amnesia or maybe he recognised that people were drifting with boredom. His tie was the highlight of the evening!

Perry

A car crash event!

Ok....Its not really funny! But it was another pun-tastic opportunity, when one driver got so excited by the launch of a new labour poster campaign, he decided to crash the event, quite literally!
A Car Crash...What a brilliant metaphor for their campaign right now. But for anyone hoping he was actually aiming for a shot at dark Lord Mandy...alas the driver still intends to vote labour next week, maybe he took a knock to the head!

Thursday 29 April 2010

Brown in the Brown stuff.....again!

Bigoted, who me? No you!

It just keeps getting worse for Gordon Brown and his communications team must be doing their nut in by now! Not content with clearly looking for someone else in the campaign team to blame for his lack of answers for the poor woman, he then goes on to upset and insult a defenceless voter.

Perhaps this is why Browns election stops are being kept under wraps until the last minute, a desperate attempt to keep him away from as many members of the public as possible.

But what a schoolboy mistake from GB, forgetting the mic was still on. There have been rumours that this was a PR stunt by Brown to get his policy on immigration to the forefront ahead of tonight's debate. If this was the case, it was either very badly thought through or it was thought up by a double agent on the tory pay roll. All he has done is strengthen the playground bully persona he has acquired recently and show how out of touch he has become.

Personally I think it likely that this is just another silly mistake from a floundering campaign, but one that will cost them dear and could well be another nail in the labour party coffin.

Perry

Sunday 25 April 2010

Help me make it through the (Election) night...

When Gordon met Elvis!

Okay, this PR stunt I just can't not post on. I JUST CAN'T HELP BELIEVIN Gordon Brown must really be in TROUBLE now and seeking a BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATERS if he thought that resurrecting Elvis would have been his GOOD LUCK CHARM to quell the SUSPICIOUS MINDS of the voters.

Alright, enough puns. What were the Labour party comms team thinking? Other than the fact that it gave bored journalists, and me, a field day, I can't see how saying a dead American supports your campaign is in any way helpful! What message was he trying to get across??? It made him look out of touch and cheesy. PR disaster me thinks.

Gordon might be saying DONT BE CRUEL and LET IT BE ME, but I think if this is going to be the quality of his PR strategy from now on then its TOO MUCH. ITS NOW OR NEVER to SURRENDER to the urge to vote for someone else on election night...... Okay Im done now :)

Perry


The Leaders Debate Round 2

Okay...yes, technically this post is a few days overdue! But without a doubt the biggest PR event of the last week (bigger even than Gordon meeting Elvis!) was the second leaders debate.

Just as important as what they were saying was how they were saying it and how they came across.... As Im sure Nick Clegg will agree. Without a doubt he won the first debate, not on policies but on attitude. First time round he looked surprisingly relaxed and confident with one hand rarely leaving his pocket and he commanded presence on his podium. But not so much second time round.

First time round all Clegg had to do was turn up and prove he wasn't Cameron or Brown, but for this second debate he was under pressure and it showed. He started off over-confident only to seemingly melt under pressure on certain questions. the guy lacks gravitas, he seems nice enough, but do we really want Nice Nick running the country and representing us on a world stage? He also kept interrupting, which only served the upstart image he had acquired.

Not that Brown did any better. If he put a pound back into the economy for every time he said "I agree with Nick..." then the UK budget deficit would have been halved by now! He also had a tendency to laugh every time he disagreed with something. he may have been told to lighten up but smiling is one thing Gordon Brown should always avoid, it makes him more scary than the weeping angels form Dr Who. His see through use of number play on the figures was a desperate ploy and I wish he would learn to say Al Qaeda properly, because at the moment it sounds like he may have created a new terror threat!

And so on to Cameron. For a PR man, he really seems to have lost his grasp of the importance of image right now. This second debate had him looking jaded and dare I say it slightly scruffy...it really did look like he had let one of his kids do his tie for him. He did however come across as more confident in this second debate and made back some of the ground lost in the first. I do however, expect more from him, he seem off his game at a crucial time and should be creating more of a presence.

Overall this second debate was much closer, perhaps Cameron won it by a whisper. One thing we can say for sure is that the debates have thrown the election wide open. I do however think that the best way to make the final debate more interesting would be to give them each a light-sabre and let them fight it out that way see what happens!

Perry




Where to Start???

Where indeed?!?

Well let's face it. PR is a massive, fast moving industry covering a huge variety of areas, so there is no way this blog is going to cover all of them!
But what it will aim to do is pass comment on the bits that catch Perrys eye. The delights and disasters that pop up in the news and anything else that takes the fancy on the way.

Seeing as the number one story at the moment is the election it seems likely that this will take centre stage in these posts! But this is only one point of view on these issues!
Please feel free to comment/ question anything on here you wish!

Perry the Penguin

PS: Perry would like to let everyone know now, he is not from Iceland and is in no way affiliated with any inconvenient volcanos!