If the Price is right...

Go into a newsagents, and look at the magazines stand. Now do this every week for a month, who are you guaranteed to see on the front cover? I'm talking about Katie Price a.k.a Jordon of course, the former Page 3 girl we all love to hate.

She is worth several millions of pounds, and although she is featured in magazines because of her personal life, she is very successful business-wise. She markets a range of perfumes, books and equestrian clothing. She has just landed a £2.2 Million contract to design her own range of baby clothes in her favourite colour, pink, for the exclusive Selfridges chain. And accroding to Hello Magazine, Katie is also set to launch her own glossy magazine which will feature news and views as well as behind-the-scenes footage from her reality TV show.

After her appearance on TV show I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! 4 years ago, her business was thriving, and Katie Price became a household name for different reasons other than her occupation. She met singer Peter Andre on the show and they later married. After 3 and a half years marriage and 2 children, they decided to split up. It was one of the most public break-ups we have ever seen. Both Katie and Peter refused to comment as to the real reason why the split up, for their childrens sake. This didn't stop them accusing each other of things in different magazines. It became a publishing war!

This year Katie made a suprise appearance in the show that made her even more famous, I'm a Celebrity... Get Me out of Here! where she was reportedly paid £450,000. She went on in a attempt to show people the 'real' her. Her attempt failed. The public voted for her 6 times in a row for the horrible bushtucker trials!

After the break-up with her husband, she was seen as the bad guy and well, still is. In their documentary show together 'Katie and Peter: The Next Chapter', they were always seen arguing. I only watched it a few times and sometimes I felt sorry for Peter who would put up with Katie's moods.

She later left the ITV show after becoming fed-up with being chosen for the difficult gruelling tasks every day. It was also reported that two contestants warming to each other bought back painful memories of the 1st time she went into the jungle and met Peter.

Once she left I'm a Celebrity... Get Me out of Here, she dumped her cross-dresser boyfriend Alex Reid live on air. Bless him, how humiliating! It just seems like one publicity stunt after another, and it doesn't look like it's going to stop any time soon!

Stephen Gately's Death

Stephen Gately, best known for being in the boyband Boyzone, died of natural causes in October this year. Jan Moir of The Daily Mail wrote an article entitled 'A strange, lonely and troubling death...' on 16th November, a day before the singer's funeral.

The article was questioning how the singer has actually died, and implied that the singer and his partner had invited a Bulgarian student back to their apartment. She wrote:
'Whatever the cause of death is, it is not, by any yardstick, a natural one. Let us be absolutely clear about this. All that has been established so far is that Stephen Gately was not murdered.

And I think if we are going to be honest, we would have to admit that the circumstances surrounding his death are more than a little sleazy'

(Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1220756/A-strange-lonely-troubling-death--.html#ixzz0a0Hc8WNa)

The PPC (Press Complaints Commision) received in total 25,000 complaints about the article, 20,000 off which were made in 48 hours. People claimed the article was hateful and homophobic.

There is a Facebook group called 'The Daily Mail should retract Jan Moir's hateful, homophobic article'. Although the article was printed on the 16th November, still a month on people feel offended that the article was ever published.

Stephen Gately's civil partner Andrew Cowles has himself complanined to the PCC, it was reported yesterday. Andrew claims the article breached guidelines of accuracy and discrimination.

Audiences were able to comment on the article as they are now able to participate and respond to what they say and read, thanks to online conversations. As so many complaints were made by individuals, action had to be taken. In this case, Jan Moir issued an apology a week after the publication saying that "absolutely none of this had anything to do with his sexuality,".

I think Jan Moir used her profession to post hateful stories about homosexuality. The Daily Mail must have known it would cause offense, but hey if a story sells, the money comes rolling in!

Facebook and Twitter- Are they Useful?

There are several social networking websites that fall into our everyday conversations. If you make friends with someone, they ask for your surname so they can add you on Facebook. It sounds a little crazy doesn't it?

Well welcome to the world of social networking sites. It's a network based around the idea od "friends". You can make friends and add them on Facebook or even re-connect with old friends that you have lost contact with, by typing their name into the search tab.

People with common interests like their favourite chocolate bar, hobbies etc, all form a group, willingly of course. Cadbury Wispa was re-launched because of a Facebook group that people joined, saying they loved the chocolate and wished it was still available. It just goes to show, people have a lot more influence than they could even be aware of.

Facebook isn't the only social networking website. The past year has seen Twitter become the new social phenomenon. With celebrities such as Rihanna, Stephen Fry and even US President Barack Obama regularly updating their statuses, surely this must emphasise what a success this network is.

Celebrities use Twitter a lot, remember when Vernon Kay posted a picture of his wife Tess Daly in her bikini with her slim frame, just 10 weeks after the birth of their child! She looked amazing, but apparently she was annoyed with him for posting the picture up!

Twitter has become so successful is has even come with it's own dictionary of terms! A tweet is a message of 140 characters or less and asks the question 'What's happening?'. Instead of saying you are friends with someone, it is re-phrased as "follow". So you may be "following" Lauren Conrad from MTV show The Hills.

Twitter is a very useful tool for PR practioners. You are able to monitor conversations, news and event by checking trends in tweets. This means you are able to see what people are talking about or how many times your product has been mentioned. It is also good to establish credibility and expertise as well as promoting issues.

I only recently joined Twitter, and to be honest, found it quite overwhelming. I instantly searched for celebrities, once I knew how to that is! However, I must admit it is full with information, perfect for PR!

A Change for Life?

I'm sure we have all seen the NHS advert about healthier eating for families, or more specifically, children. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, it's called 'Channge4Life' and it aims to get families eating healthier together, swapping suggary snacks for more nutritious ones. It certainly gets its point across- life is so easy and laid-back for us. We need to ensure that parents are feeding their children fruit and veg, and exercising for at least 1 hour a day.

Most of us eat what we want to- perhaps we look at the calories on a product but never really add them all up. I love my food, never check the calories, and admittely eat a lot of rubbish and not enough fruit and veg! I guess it's just convenient, I'm at university and when I'm not there, I'm working part-time in retail. I do try and eat the "good stuff" but I know I never eat as much as I should.

The Change4Life campaign was first shown on TV a couple of months ago, but I heard about it on the news the day before. They also sent out leaflets to every UK household with a pull-out chart so families could monitor what they eat. I think it was thoughful idea as children take more interest when they are actually doing something practical.

I just hope people don't get the wrong idea about this campaign. It frustrates me when people think that a packet of crisps will ruin their healthy diet and they will never forgive themselves. Its a packet of crisps! A balanced diet is crucial, there's no point nibbling on carrot sticks, apples and grapes all day, everyday. You can have a bag of chips, no really, and still be healthy! Just make sure you balance it out with an apple later on.

I like this campaign, especially the way NHS have got their message across. Using a family structure, but without real people. It makes the whole campaign fun and not over-serious. It is however, committed to helping families with tips and advice to enrich their lives. There is even a list of local sports centres so children can exercise and have fun with their friends. Here is a link to the website ">http://www.nhs.uk/change4life/Pages/default.aspx

It makes me think, we could all look after ourselves a bit more, or do a little more exercise couldn't we? Any campiagn that makes you think about the topic and refer back to yourself has definetly achieved it's goal.

Paranormal Activity

Paranormal Activity is a low-budget film made on around $15,000, which has seen returns of over $61,000,000! It is a film of a young couple who move into a home, only to find it has paranormal activity at night. The 'hand-held' camera technique is something that we were introduced to by 1999 film The Blair Witch Project. They set up a video-recorder in the bedroom and the story goes from there. It is the 1st film we have ever seen by director Oren Peli. I have to admit, he's not doing too badly for his 1st film!

The new evolvement of online media has a huge part to play in the success of this film. There is an official website for the film, where trailers can be viewed. There is also a tool where viewers can 'vote' for the movie to open in their city (known as 'Demand It!') This, of course, was before the huge success of the film, when the movie was going around the United States of America.

The trailer on the website is available to be shared with friends on Facebook, Twitter and can even be sent by e-mail, to obviously create a buzz. Facebook itself has over 300 million active users, with more than 65 million active users currently accessing the social networking site through their mobile phones.

Oren Peli's tactics were those of a PR genious! By setting up a website and spreading the word, he did something different. He sold out of 12 of his 13 shows which he shown in 13 college towns. And soon the word was spread! People were demanding the movie in their cinema! Not long after, it was released nationwide and as they say, the rest is history!

Rage Factor!

It's that time of year again... Christmas is round the corner, and the battle is on for the Christmas Number 1 spot!
For the past few years we have seen 'The X-Factor' winner go on to successfully become Number 1 at this festive time. Many, like myself watch and thoroughly enjoy the show.
However, not everyone is pleased that The X-Factor winner, time and time again, claims the top of the charts. Ragefactor.com, with it's tagline 'Take the power back' are campaigning against the reality shows winner to do this for the 5th year in a row. It's campaigners claim that the televised show is only out to get money and ruining the UK music scene along the way. Instead they are voting for Rage against the Machine's 17-year-old track 'Killing in the name' to achieve number 1 status this Christmas.
The campaign started out on-line with a Facebook page dedicated to it, with half a million fans vowing to download the Rage against the Machine's single in an attempt to out-sell the X-Factor winner, now known to us as Joe McElderry. It wasn't long before the campaign was featured in Kerrang!, Sky News, NME and others. Not bad for something that started out as a Facebook page!
Simon Cowell himself discussed the campaign at the X-Factor Press Realease, describing it as 'cynical' and 'stupid'. He went on to say "I think it's incredibly dismissive of the people who watch and enjoy the show... to treat our audiences as if they're stupid and I don't like that".
I understand that a lot of people may not like the television show, and may find it unfair that the winner has an advantage compared to other artists to become Number 1 at Christmas. However, what makes this song so special that it claims to bring back real music? Something that has apparently been taken away from us because of shows like The X-Factor. The more I think about it, the more it appears that the whole thing is just a scam in an attempt to claim the sought-after spot this Christmas!
Whatever you or I think, this campaign has definetly achieved something- public attention! Like I said, not bad for something that started out as a common interest.

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