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Budget sparks election fever?
Today's announcement from Gordon Brown that the budget will be held on 24 March is the start of the much anticipated run-up to the election in May. The world of politics doesn't generally spark national interest until the general public is actually given the chance to vote for a leader for their country. This year's election will be no different, but voters who have been affected by the damaging recession will surely want to voice their opinion by voting for a leader who promises to pull the country out of the recession.
The recession, and how leaders promise to resolve this, will certainly form the backbone of each party's PR campaign, but voters will also be looking for other attributes in a leader like; does he have charisma, does he personally appeal to voters, does he work well in a crisis, is he looking out for the well-being of all voters? All of these aspects and so much more will be drilled into each party‘s PR campaign and I'm intrigued to see what kinds of stories develop in the media in the next few months.
I don't think that the forthcoming election will generate the same frenzy and euphoria as the US election did or when Tony Blair first came to power in 1997, but there will still be a massive PR buzz in the build-up, with the world watching who UK voters choose to lead the country.
Angela
Sun, sea and typos
Having just got back from a wonderfully warm week in Mallorca, I'm back in the land of PR now and as with any holiday, it is starting to feel like it never happened! Whilst sunning myself on the palm-lined beaches and spending quite a good deal of time digging holes in the sand and creating a poor excuse for a sand castle (part and parcel of taking your two year-old on holiday with you), I found myself sat in a beach bar on the first afternoon of my holiday, reading a lovely lunch menu. Well it would have been lovely if I hadn't spent the whole time spotting typos in everything I read from the holiday information pack in our villa, to the various restaurant menus written in English. I swear it is the curse of working in PR! So much of my time is spent proofing articles and press releases on a daily basis that I find it hard to switch off even in such glorious surroundings. This penchant for identifying typos didn't wear off during the holiday either, it simply continued - you'd be amazed how many things I spotted (I could bore you for hours). My family however, weren't quite so interested - funny that.
Probably a little unfair though, as the majority of Spanish people responsible for writing those menus can probably speak and write much better English than I can Spanish - but I have to share a couple of my favourites with you from one English flagged menu: jackits puttato or a pizza with sauceige, speenige and tomatoes. Having said that, the food was wonderful as was the sunshine.
As PR professionals it is embedded in our minds from very early days that typos are a bad thing. But one article I read would have us believe that not all typos are bad. Apparently a student at Stanford University, Sean Anderson accidentally helped Larry Page come up with the name and spelling of Google. While Page and Anderson were in Page's office, the two were attempting to come up with a name for the would-be search behemoth. Sean had suggested verbally the word "googolplex", spurning Page to shorten it to "googol". Anderson then went to check the availability of the word, accidentally spelling it "Google" in an internet domain name registry. Available it was, and the company has decided to go with this spelling ever since. Whether or not the company has succeeded because of the name is subject to some speculation, it is very interesting to see what has become of a basic spelling error. It also goes to show that not all typos result in lives being ruined and/or financial turmoil, way to go Sean Anderson (although he now works for Microsoft).
Natalie
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