BANKERS appear to have overtaken estate agents and journalists at the top of ‘Professions You Love To Hate’.

The credit crunch, global economic crisis, rising unemployment and job insecurity have all combined to make the banker ‘Public Enemy Number One’.

Although Prime Minister Gordon Brown appears reluctant to start mixing it with the money men, the new President of the United States, Barack Obama, has lost no time in pouring scorn on the greed and irresponsibility of Wall Street.

Obama speaks for many of us who believe the worsening recession and billion pound ‘bail-outs’ have been directly caused by the unregulated speculation and irresponsibility of the financiers.

So it is good to hear of one bank – the Co Op* – which has actually turned away business as a result of its ethical approach. More on How to turn away business – and still be successful…

LOCAL newspapers have become amongst the first victims of the global recession with major job losses, pay freezes and closures announced.

Some commmentators are already predicting that the future for local papers is bleak, almost terminal, as they are hit both by the economic downturn and the march of the internet.

Editorial quality is always one of the first things to be sacrificed it seems, as newspaper ‘bean counters’ cut jobs and titles to reduce costs and maintain profits for their shareholders.

Here in the North West, for example, 43 journalist jobs are going at Trinity Newspapers on Merseyside, publishers of the Liverpool Echo and Daily Post; the Guardian Media Group, publishers of the Manchester Evening News, has closed local paper offices all over Greater Manchester and the Newsquest-owned Bury Times is now being moved to Bolton! The same story is being repeated all over the country. More on Is this the death of local newspapers?

FLEDGLING businesses in Greater Manchester want more help to market themselves on the internet as the recession bites, according to a Sound Communication survey.

They want better technical support, more training and stronger creative input to help market their businesses more effectively on the web.

Although most are ‘reasonably’ or ‘very well equipped’ to use the internet, the biggest barrier they face is their lack of knowledge and the ‘techy’ jargon used by experts.

More than 100 start-up enterprises took part in the survey which was carried out by Sound Communication during a series of ‘Marketing on the Web’ workshops we provided for new small businesses.

More on New businesses want more web marketing – Sound Communication survey

MORE than six million people have so far been emailed a spoof video blaming them for electing Republican John McCain as the next President of the United States.

The video is going out to more than 30 new people per second as a direct and personal reminder to them to vote in next Tuesday’s Presidential election.

The spoof video is set after the election and “reveals” that Democratic candidate Barack Obama has lost by just one vote. The ‘missing’ voter is the person receiving the personalised video!

In the spoof news-style video, the missing voter’s name is blazed across headlines in the New York Times, is personally thanked by George W. Bush and is castigated by irate US citizens (including an hilariously foul-mouthed grandmother, pictured above) and a lonely goat herd who now fears his flock is about to be bombed by ‘President McCain’.

The video is witty, irreverent and extremely well done – and it may have the desired effect in helping to Get Out The Vote as well as becoming a global hit.

Research shows that this kind of social “nudging” is extremely effective. The organisers are aiming to reach 10 million people before Election Day in the USA – but look set to easily reach their target.

To see how it works, you can fill in your friends names and send the video to them today.

Send the Spoof Video

More on Getting Out The Vote – US style

At 19.11 on Sunday 24 August, 2008, we received an email headed  ‘Hello’ from Senator Joe Biden, new Vice-Presidential running mate to Democratic candidate Barack Obama.

The Obama campaign’s mastery of the internet and digital communications has already been noted: texting the choice of his No 2 direct to supporters was just the most recent demonstration.

So it was no surprise that, within 24 hours of being nominated, Biden had been plugged straight into the Obama campaign’s huge worldwide database and was sending out a personal YouTube video message.

Ten out of ten for lightning-fast communications and being so web savvy.

But the message was as equally impressive as the medium. More on Running-mate Joe Biden’s impressive YouTube debut for Barack Obama

IT must be one of the classic PR blunders of the year…

Birmingham city council in the West Midlands produces 360,000 leaflets – using a picture of Birmingham, Alabama!

As the saying goes, ‘you couldn’t make this stuff up’.

A sharp-eyed Brummie first spotted the Alabama image on the leaflet and rang the council to complain.

No doubt there were red faces all around the Bull Ring, internal enquiries and interminable meetings to try and find out what went wrong. More on How Birmingham city council made a PR blunder worse…

MANCHESTER could lose £3billion investment in our public transport because of opposition to a proposed congestion charge.

That was the message at a public meeting in the city called to discuss the controversial charge, which would bring new extensions to the Metrolink as well as 120 new buses, extra rail carriages and pedestrian and cycle paths.

Labour councillor Andrew Fender, a member of the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority, explains in the YouTube video clip above how a massive extension of the Metrolink to Didsbury, Oldham and Rochdale, Droylsden and Ashton is part of the congestion charge deal.

“We cannot have this scale of investment without the congestion charge,” he said.

Rob Adlard, from Manchester Conservatives, explains in the YouTube video clip below that his party opposes the congestion charge because it discredits ‘green taxes’, is economically flawed and represents a government attempt at ‘blackmail’.

Unfortunately, the anti-congestion charge Momentum Group pulled out of attending the public meeting at the last minute. Its PR firm, Communique apparently did not offer any explanation. More on The Manchester congestion charge – the only way to get £3billion for public transport?

THE charge is damaging: that US Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama cancelled a hospital visit to wounded troops in Germany because he was not allowed to take the press with him.

It feeds into the popular global cynicism about politics and politicians: all spin and no substance. Obama is the cerebral dilettante concerned only with image and appearance rather than genuinely interested in the well-being of our brave boys.

And it undermines Obama’s campaign credentials as being an authentic voice who offers a clean break with the Washington machine politics of the past. Just like all the rest – a self-centred ego-maniac.

 The allegation of snubbing wounded service men now appears a central part of Republican John McCain’s attack on Obama, potentially fatally undermining the Democrat’s credibility as future Commander in Chief.

Republic campaign ‘attack ads’ are being aired on TV and YouTube and McCain has started touring the TV studios, this week levelling the ‘snub’ charge on the influential Larry King show on CBS.

But what is the truth? More on Did Obama snub ‘our brave boys’ because there was no photo opportunity?

ONE of the world’s biggest advertising agencies is trying to sell its stake in a Zimbabwe company masterminding the re-election of President Robert Mugabe.
WPP, which owns a huge raft of global Public Relations companies including  Burson-Marsteller, Cohn & Wolfe, GCI, Hill & Knowlton and Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, has found itself in the embarrassing position of apparently aiding the re-election of Mugabe.
WPP boss Sir Martin Sorrel – one of the world’s richest men – told Radio 4 that he was keen to sell his 25 per cent stake in the advertising company, run by Mugabe’s daughter, “as soon as possible.”
The Zimbabwean advertising company is said to be orchestrating the election campaign of Mugabe whose dictatorial regime  has been roundly condemned by almost everyone.
“There is no reason whatsoever for us to be associated with the Mugabe regime or the campaign for his re-election,” Sorrel declared.

More on A PR company acting ethically?

TWO interesting developments in the Third Sector – the space between public and private organisations.
First, former Prime Minister Tony Blair hands out some advice to other Third Sector organisations as a result of his involvement in charity work.
Blair’s out-of-government office has now set up four separate organisations which all appear to loosely fit the term, Third Sector.
The four organisations, two of which are termed Foundations, have been set up to concentrate on climate change, sport, Africa and Faith.
Blair, who is also a Middle East peace envoy, concludes that partnership is the key to success for his and other Third Sector organisations.
Blair says: “comparing my old and new worlds, I’d say that in philanthropy, unlike politics most of the time, you can genuinely welcome others alongside you.”
Of course, post-Iraq, the difficult question for Blair now is whether organisations are willing to be associated with him in pursuit of their noble and good causes? Or whether the association damages the cause?
Secondly, an established and successful social enterprise, the ECT Group, has been taken over by the stock market listed private company, May Gurney. More on Partnerships: Blair’s post-Iraq advice – and a social enterprise is taken over…