Pinnacle Insights

Political editor v spin doctor: compelling or embarrassing?

May 20, 2010 | Written by Duncan Hart

Discussion in today’s edition of PR Week regarding the recent on-air spat between Adam Boulton, the Sky News political editor, and Alastair Campbell, the Labour spin doctor, and whether it made compelling viewing.
For those who didn’t see it: following the outcome of the general election, but before the creation of the coalition government, Campbell and [...]

Posted in: Interviews, PR, Political communications, media. 1 Comment »

Don’t say it, if you don’t want it heard

April 29, 2010 | Written by Duncan Hart

When media training I always remind people of two critically important – and related – points, which any senior business person – or politician – should always remember:
Firstly, they (the media) cannot print what you don’t say. If you don’t want it to make the headlines, then don’t say it in the first place.
Secondly, you never [...]

Posted in: Crisis communications, Interviews, PR, Political communications, media. Leave a Comment »

Tears before election time

March 4, 2010 | Written by Duncan Hart

We have recently witnessed a new phenomenon; influential men (and Peter Andre) breaking down on TV, showing real emotion and revealing the ‘inner man’.
Gordon Brown on Piers Morgan’s show, and Alistair Campbell with Andrew Marr have both been overcome, and who can forget Peter Andre shedding tears as he spoke of how he would fight [...]

Posted in: Interviews, PR, Political communications, media. Leave a Comment »

Communicating Europe to the citizens

November 17, 2009 | Written by Andrew Manasseh

Last week I went to the EurActiv 10th anniversary debate and awards ceremony at the European Parliament. A theme running through the evening was how Europe can best communicate to its citizens.

Posted in: PR, Political communications. Leave a Comment »

The use of digital media by parliamentary staff

November 5, 2009 | Written by Andrew Manasseh

I went to a very interesting launch last night at the European Parliament. Edelman PR and StrategyOne have commissioned a survey into the habits of ‘staffers’ political assistants who work for politicians.

Posted in: Political communications. Leave a Comment »

EU Communications – damned if you do, damned if you don’t

August 18, 2009 | Written by Andrew Manasseh

The first two weeks of August are normally quiet in Brussels, but there may be a storm brewing over European Commission communications with the EU citizens.

A new report from a Swedish think-tank, Timbro, is highly critical of the European Commission’s communications, accusing the EU of creating an illegitimate “propaganda machine.”

Posted in: Political communications. 1 Comment »

Corporate diplomacy in the Gulf

June 12, 2009 | Written by Jennifer Hardie

I’ve spent the past three days in Bahrain attending the third annual Bahrain PR Association Conference. This year’s subject was on diplomacy and they had a turnout of more than 200 PR people working in the Gulf region (Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman and Kuwait). On the last day I ran a [...]

Posted in: PR, Political communications, UAE. Leave a Comment »

Minister shoots himself in the foot with circular firing squad

June 5, 2009 | Written by Will Hardie

Doug Alexander gave a good BBC radio interview this morning defending Gordon Brown’s leadership. He held up well, but made one big mistake — the mother of all negative soundbites.

Posted in: Crisis communications, Interviews, Political communications, media. Leave a Comment »

How to get a minister to call you

May 26, 2009 | Written by Will Hardie

A contact of mine sometimes needs to get important issues in front of ministers, but has a hard time competing for their time and attention. She also knows which ministers use Google Alerts to track online references to their names — some are tech-savvy (and/or self-obsessed) enough to do this personally.
The solution — post a [...]