PR, marcomms, recruitment and all the bits in between

Grasping the nettle

A while back we mentioned Lord Bell - it’s nice to see that he is not resting on his substantial laurels, but is still up for a challenge. According to the Guardian, his lordship (or at least his firm) was invited to take on the former Soviet republic of Belarus as a client with a brief to improve its international image. Given that the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, has described the country as an “outpost of tyranny” and human rights groups have accused its president, Lukashenko, of presiding over an imitation Soviet regime with secret police, fraudulent elections, and jailed opponents this could be quite an interesting task. However certain challenges seem to be even beyond the talents of Lord Bell. A recent approach by Zimbabwe was apparently greeted with a definite, “thanks, but no thanks.”

Addicted to the internet?

A leading psychiatrist from the Oregon Health and Science University, Dr Jerald Block, has recently said that internet addiction needs to be treated as a clinical disorder as it has reached such a high level across the world. He says that easy access to email, gaming, gambling and pornography are causes of this disorder. In South Korea, 10 people have died from blood clots from sitting in internet cafes for extended periods of time and someone was murdered because of an online game. The country now 'considers internet addiction one of its most serious public health issues'. So beware readers, next time you have that urge to check your Facebook, shake it off, you could be the next victim!

Armageddon – part 2

Avid readers will remember our rant about how the media seems to be delighting in the prospect of economic downturn, despite the fact that many sectors (including PR) seem to be holding up quite nicely so far. A few weeks ago the FT carried a lovely big headline telling us that no less a luminary than Mervyn King thinks we’re all going to hell in a hand basket (they didn’t actually use that term, but you get the picture). The accompanying newspiece featured the words ‘bleak’ and ‘pessimistic’ repeatedly as well as the uplifting ‘economy likely to come close to a halt’ before admitting in paragraph nine that Mr King’s was not actually predicting a recession after all. This compares quite nicely with a feature in the US magazine, Advertising Age, headlined ‘PR had a good run but agencies expect growth to slow’. The writer flirts with the idea of a negative story but you can immediately tell that his heart just isn’t in it and before you know it he’s flagging up that, despite the US being the home of the credit crunch, the PR industry there might even grow a bit faster this year than it did in 2007 and follows up with a string of upbeat quotes. Here at Hanson, we’d be the last to stick our heads in the sand if things really are turning down dramatically, but we can’t help feeling that the best way to get a recession is to talk yourself into one and vice-versa.

Perks under fire

A while back, our old friends at HMRC were cracking down on the self-employed. This time it’s the turn of those on the corporate payroll. Not content with taxing the company car towards the brink of extinction, the government is now considering proposals to tax workers’ parking spaces as a ‘benefit in kind’ (the chair you are currently sitting on will very likely follow before to long), as well as taxing employers for having the effrontery to provide car parking facilities. Of course parking a car in many of our major cities has long been a major challenge, resulting in many employers paying for taxis home when their staff have to work late. Now new guidelines from the Revenue and Customs have shifted this particular perk into the ‘benefit in kind’ box, so expect your tax bill to rise unless you can prove real necessity – and heavy bags, the horrors of much late night public transport or simply being worn out will not count.

Bloggers beware

The joys of blogging and social networking seem to have taken over our modern lives and have created outlets for ordinary people like us to vent our frustrations and let our creative juices flow. But fellow bloggers and networkers, type with caution.

It was only last summer that employees from the well known directory enquiries company were facing the sack after setting up a Facebook group insulting their customers and claiming that amongst other things they had (and I quote) “wrote a few a******* callers’ numbers on the wall of public toilets and pasted them on many an internet site. Haha.” Oops.

Now it has come to light that a mystery civil servant blogger, known only as the “Civil Serf” is likely to face disciplinary action after her attack on the Government (as soon as they find out who she actually is.) She has ridiculed the PM and claimed that politicians are lazy and indecisive, saying “Ministers only take decisions at the weekend (probably) because they have their spouse and/or political adviser to do it for them.”

The lesson we should take from this? Remember that it is a small world out there - but that the virtual world is even smaller! At Hanson towers, we’d advise avoiding disclosing any unfavourable information about your workplace on the World Wide Web. It only takes one person to see it, for it to spread, leading to some uncomfortable conversations with HR and your boss and maybe even costing you your job. Alternatively be very clever and don’t get caught. Bloggers, take note.

Freelance update

The government seems intent on making life as difficult as possible for the self-employed, what with IR35 and the recent crackdown on many of the ‘umbrella’ companies and the possible effects of this on the small army of freelancers working in PR. 2007 saw a small victory for the forces of resistance in the seemingly interminable Arctic Systems case where HMRC failed in its bid to stop husband and wife limited companies from sharing dividends to maximise tax savings. However celebrations are likely to be short-lived. Exchequer Secretary, Angela Eagle, has now stated that she is looking to “bring forward proposals for changes to legislation”, which will take away this right. The campaign to push freelancers onto permanent payrolls goes on.

Armageddon

We all love journalists of course. After all, without them things would be a bit quiet in the PR industry. But we can’t help think that, at least here in the UK, they do seem to delight in a bit of doom and gloom. Ever since the sub-prime fiasco came to light, the media have been positively wallowing in the notion that the economy is going to fall off a very high cliff. Hardly a day goes by with even the most respectable of commentators telling us that the end of the world is nigh and that we might as well all pack up and go home. Now it seems that at least one of the great and good of the PR sector is following suit. In a letter to PR Week, Lord Chadlington, who heads up the Huntsworth group, has given advice on cost cutting to survive what he seems to believe is an inevitable recession. But are things really that bad despite the ups and downs of the stock markets? The same issue of PR Week carries two very positive reports on the industry – the Bellweather Report and a survey by market research company, Plimsoll. Even the head of one of Huntsworth’s own agencies, Amanda Riddle of Grayling, is quoted as saying that holding onto staff is vitally important and that clients are still finding a budget for creative ideas. Yes, 2008 will almost certainly be more challenging than its predecessor, but the end of the world as we know it? Perhaps not.