Found this blog today and it made me laugh and cringe in equal measure. PR people, my colleagues, how can you get it so wrong?!
By the way, I realise it’s taken me three months to actually “find” this blog but you know I could spend all day looking at blogs end up not seeing them all (and likely end up jobless and friendless as well).
Just because I’m really interested in all this stuff, I have volunteered myself for a project at work looking at a social networking model for a client. At the moment the most frustrating thing about this will be when I leave this job (in a mere two weeks) and the project gets passed on to someone else. I suspect that between now and then the most frustating thing will be client’s reponse to my counsel that they can’t just pretend to be a punter and post some rather overtly branded communication on youtube hoping that your average youtuber will think “what marvellous advice, I must go and try these products”. I may need luck.
*I would like to point out I am not a social networking guru and that title must surely belong to Suw, however in the land of the blind the one eyed man is king.
I could be pre-judging the entire situation but knowing people who have worked with her, I am dreading Lynne Franks being on I’m a Celebrity. As much as many people don’t believe it, most PR is quite a serious discipline (okay it’s not up there with charity work or medical ethics but it’s not fluffy and is increasingly less populated with Chelsea girls filling in time before they marry Tarquin): it’s not about spin and it’s not about lunches. I suspect I may have more battles in trying to persuade people about the validity of my job as she prances round the jungle.
I would like to point out that I have never watched this programme nor do I intend to start now. In fact I am decidedly off reality TV.
This is very exciting. Only temporary at first but fingers crossed…start on Wednesday - HURRAH!!
Without getting my hopes up too much, the market seems much more buoyant this month than the last two Octobers. Will I find myself a job? I flippin hope so. Apparently my bank is requiring that I actually pay money INTO my account - all rather annoying of it if you ask me.
Evening Standard headline this afternoon “Property PR Tricks: Bugging, Bullying and Forgery”. ARGH!!
I would like to point out that these are not “PR tricks”, they are criminal offences.
I would also like to point out that decent PRs do not rely on tricks to get their message across.
I would also like to point out that if it wasn’t for PRs, newspapers would be strangely empty and journalists’ lives would be much tricker.
Rant over.
I know I haven’t blogged for ages, this is largely due to a lack of hardware. My laptop had developed an audio card problem so I phoned up PC World as it’s only six months old and was really annoying me. “No worries,” they said, “we’ll come and pick it up and the repair is likely to take five days.” So I thought that sounded all rather reasonable and sent it off. BIG MISTAKE.
Three weeks later there is no sign of my laptop, they are still waiting for a part and I have been struggling along with internet cafes and now - thank Crunchie - a borrowed laptop. Mysteriously when I have phoned up about the missing computer, the ‘average’ length of time for a repair has gone from 5-7 days to 7-10 days and is now a whopping 10-14 days. We are now on working day 15 and I am fairly livid. Annoyed at not having my laptop and REALLY annoyed at their crappy customer service.
So apart from frequenting many an internet cafe, what else have I been up to?
Went to Antibes for the weekend which was jolly nice except for the resulting sprained ankle - I still have black toes two and a half weeks later.
Have been trying to find some short term work and failing rather miserably. This is very annoying as there is loads of stuff out there but it’s all for at least three months and I’m off to Africa in less than two.
So I’ve been doing my TEFL course - although to be honest that’s been scuppered by the laptop situation - so I’ve only been able to do a bit this week. Got 91% for one module though so quite pleased.
Been doing tons of recovery work with varying degrees of success. On the whole it’s been okay but spent a lot of Sunday in the bath, in tears and on the phone to the Samaritans (not necessarily all at the same time) so probably a fair bit of room for improvement.
Day time TV has been a dominant feature. Not exactly thrillsville although Dallas remains gripping as it’s building up to the whole “who shot JR?” thing which was jolly exciting back in the day so (I’m hoping) will be equally gripping second time around.
I have also tried, and failed, to avoid Big Brother. Having convinced myself that I will not be in the country for the final few weeks, I was looking forward to a housemate free summer but no, some gremlin has got into the scheduling and, more often than not, BB fills that programme gap. My current thoughts on all the housemates are: Twins - surely not fair to lump them together all the time but they are pretty lightweight and pink so not much else to recommend them; Carol - heart’s in the right place but not everyone enjoys mothering, likely she’ll go this week; Chanelle - ah bless, a girl with issues and amusing hysterical outbursts (a la Nicki 2006), but her heart’s in the right place; Charley - annoying, self-absorbed, irritating, please remove her; Laura - annoying trouble-maker; Nicky - needs to lighten up, will her slight interest in Liam be her saving grace?; Tracy - seems a laugh but bit too remote from the rest of the group. As for the boys: Ziggy - takes himself a bit too seriously; Jerry - he’s growing on me, can’t quite decide if that’s because he’s increasingly appealing or because he’s like the vine weed that is the bain of my garden; Seany - see Charley, please get him out soon and someone also tell him cultivating the Mick Hucknall look os not to be recommended. Brian seems fun, he’s good-looking and seems to have a genuinely pleasant air about him; Jonathan - met far too many people like him and don’t like him; Liam seems a little dull although I think the target audience of BB will think he’s good looking and want to keep him in the house. Billy - can’t quite work him out yet but the Zoolander look is interesting. That is really sad, I have just spent ages writing about people in a house on a television, the phrase: “get a life” springs to mind.
I have to vent as I am being driven mad by my workplace. Thank crunchie I’m finishing here tomorrow as I think I am about to blow a fuse. There was a time when “no challenge” work was exactly what I needed but I’m definitely ready for more of a stretch. Hopefully I’ll find some freelance work which will be just the right amount of demanding. I’d also like to work for someone who is a little less of a control freak although obviously PR and control freakery are very common bedfellows.
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