When reading Anthony Hilton’s column in PR Week, I found myself struck by the spooky similarities between financial and corporate PR and the twenty-something dating market.....

Just a couple of examples from his recent columns to highlight my point....

An article from August talks about damaging rumours which are ‘deliberately spread to bring about the fall in prices they need’ and in another article later in the month he writes about how ‘the successful PR leaves no trace’ – basically feeding stories whilst successfully remaining anonymous. Does this remind anyone else of the games people play when spreading gossip/telling tales about members of the opposite sex?  Anthony also mentions the other tactic of ‘leaking an exaggerated version of how bad things will be so that when things turn out not as bad as expected it will perversely be seen as good news’...again, the idea is scarily similar to a situation experienced by a (male) friend of mine who thought his significant other had left him for someone else, when in actual fact, she has merely gone for a dinner date with someone else. So that’s ok, right? Good news all round.

Anthony also wrote a column about how tough guys should never say sorry, using the example of Sir Fred Goodwin of Royal Bank of Scotland and how he was previously thought to be ‘an ambitious, cost-cutting tough guy’ as opposed to a ‘touchy-feely softie’, and how we all prefer the former rather than the latter. What we look for in a Company Executive is also apparently what we look for in a potential date – someone ambitious, tough, and dare we say it, arrogant, as opposed to the sweet nice guy I’m sure we have all turned down on numerous occasions. However, arrogance may be good, but as we saw with BAA, too much of it is a bad thing and will result in us running screaming in the other direction.

Anthony Hilton, City Commentator on the Evening Standard or Dating Guru? It remains to be seen....

Thea Foote