Boris Johnson: Mayor of London a “nasty piece of work” – but do the public think so, or care?

The British press has devoted a lot of lines this week to how Boris Johnson, Mayor of London and possible future rival for British PM (though he’s never admitted to this ambition) was made to squirm on the sofa of a popular political talk show as his interviewer, Eddie Mair, dug his scalpel in deep, calling Johnson a “nasty piece of work”, quizzing him about being fired from The Times for making up quotes, being sacked by his party for allegedly lying about an affair and the infamous recorded phone call with Darius Guppy where they discuss a plan to have a journalist beaten up. A classic car crash interview in many ways, but has it actually damaged Brand Boris?

China’s new first lady uses PR to project ‘soft power’

People’s Republic of China leader Xi Jinping and First Lady Peng Liyuan

Michelle Obama and Kate Middleton show Peng Liyuan the way

At a time when China’s Foreign Ministry is struggling to improve the country’s international image, new first lady Peng Liyuan, who in the past has dazzled audiences at home and abroad with her bravura soprano voice, has been brought out of the Chinese closet and into the PR limelight.

B2B and Social Media – What’s the score for smaller businesses and start-ups?

Image Credit: Twitter Profile by Rosaura Ochoa

This week, in a departure from our news based analysis and to mark Twitter’s seven year anniversary, we take a look at the effects of social media in business.

Everyone’s tweeting, posting and liking, or so it seems. But is “going social” really that important for B2B smaller businesses and start-ups setting out on the road to that IPO?

Sequestration or cuts? Invest or spend?

Dollar
Image Credit: Images of Money

The power of words in swaying public opinion

 

In the US, the Obama administration has just introduced something called sequestration. These are actually mandatory spending cuts – what the Europeans call austerity measures but somehow it sounds a rather less painful practice than that short sharp word ‘cuts’. (Btw, austerity to the Germans has very positive connotations of good standards of fiscal discipline, austerity measures are very acceptable in Germany!)

Boeing shares defy media nightmare

Boeing 787 Dreamliner
Image Credit: INABA Tomoaki

Fuel leaks, emergency landings and alarm bells – but shares are up

This week, Boeing, the largest global aircraft manufacturer and second largest aerospace and defence contractor in the world, enjoyed fruits born of confident executive handling of a PR meltdown. On Tuesday shares rose 1.5 percent to $84.16, the highest since May 2008.

In an emergency, food giant Tesco takes to the power of advertisements

Image Credit: AdamKR

PR gives you valuable third party endorsements, but when there is none to be had anywhere, you really do have to take to direct contact with your audience, so advertising, direct mail, video blogs but NOT social media, come into their own – as UK supermarket giant Tesco found out.

Show, Don’t Tell: The Power of the Image in social media PR

Barack Obama: http://bit.ly/U82FRJ

“Four more years” – when Barack Obama posted this picture as he announced his re-election as US president it became the most re-tweeted tweet ever!

An Olympic hero with an admirable attitude and an incompetent news presenter

How social media has an unnerving power to define you, in minutes

This week, double Olympic champion Mo Farah won the New Orleans half-marathon. He also inadvertently secured himself a world-wide reputation as ‘all-round great guy’ after an interview with an ill-informed journalist went viral. It’s a reputation that will no doubt pay dividends in terms of future sponsorship deals.