An Ofcom investigation into “documentaries” broadcast by the BBC has found that nearly 200 of them were supplied at no cost, with many secretly funded by special interests and with no sponsorship credits to let viewers know of the possibly biased content. (Press Gazette)

In one example the Independent newspaper reported in 2011 that the Malaysian government had paid ironically-named PR company FactBased Communications (FBC) nearly £12 million over two years to make and place content promoting Malaya positively in “factual” and current affairs programmes. BBC World News, that screened eight half-hour programmes supplied by FBC claimed that they had no idea that they were broadcasting paid-for PR, even though it was given to them free. The poor deluded BBC now accepts that FBC was “not an appropriate producer” for BBC World News. Continue reading →

Some marketeers are finding out the hard way the difference between a carbon copy (cc) and a blind carbon copy (bcc) when bulk emailing, and it’s a common but potentially dangerous error for those who accidentally get it wrong.

As an HIV clinic in London very recently found out when they sent out their newsletter using the cc rather than the bcc option on their email system. Pasting email addresses into the bcc field usually prevents individual recipients from knowing who else has received the email, so the clinic sent every recipient the email addresses of every other recipient, that is more than 780 patients of the HIV facility. This was a serious error with likely repercussions as sensitive medical information of this kind is sought after by cyber criminals bent on using it for identity theft, or even blackmail. And insurers are increasingly likely to dispute claims arising from the failure of an organisation to protect sensitive patient data. Continue reading →

The old adage that “sex sells” has been questioned after a study at Ohio State University has shown that graphic sexual images can actually distract potential customers and make them forget about buying the product, with the same claim levelled against images of violence.

Accordingly, say the US researchers, advertisers need to carefully consider their approach, in terms of the use of these images, and also the sex and violence content of TV programmes and films they sponsor, or show their ads during.

A misleading leaflet published by Iain Duncan Smith’s Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) used fake stories of benefit claimants to sell the DWP’s benefit sanctions regime, without making it clear that the stories were fiction. The leaflet has now been withdrawn.

The dishonesty of DWP marketeers came to light after a Freedom of Information (FOI) request from Welfare Weekly magazine. This asked the DWP to prove that “Zac’s story” and “Sarah’s story”, two statements with photographs from two people who claimed to have treated very fairly by Duncan Smith’s department over benefit sanctions, were in fact true stories of real people. The DWP was unable to do so and admitted that they’d used stock photographs and made the stories up to suit their promotional message.

After the FOI request the leaflet was quickly wiped off the DWP website, but not before Welfare Weekly had put it up as a pdf on theirs.

The payment of the national living wage of £7.20 an hour to all staff over 25 years old at the Whitbread-owned Costa coffee shops will mean price rises for customers when it kicks in next April.

This is the warning from the £4.6 million a year (£383 an hour) Whitbread chief executive Andy Harrison who is paid more than 50 times the living wage out of the huge profits to be made from selling a £2 plus product with a 10 pence ingredient cost. Continue reading →

The organising committee of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics have withdrawn their recently-designed logos, with considerable loss and embarrassment, after Belgian designer Olivier Debie claimed they were close copies of a logo he had designed for a Belgian theatre, and threatened legal action for plagiarism.

The committee originally contested the allegation, noting that the theatre logo was not trademarked and in any case stating their conviction that their version was an original design. Their designer, Kanjiro Sano also denied plagiarism. Continue reading →

Those still believing that review websites such as Tripadvisor offer only honest customer opinions of restaurants should know that such establishments are being offered positive reviews for £4 each.

According to a report in the Daily Telegraph the MD of London restaurant Gauthier, Soho, James Lewis, was contacted by a Mr Suhayal Malik offering this service recently, and which he declined. However Lewis has warned that there are companies now set up to provide fake glowing reviews on review websites, this deception made easier by the fact that Tripadvisor don’t scrutinise entries especially carefully, nor ask for proof that a visit has ever been made. Continue reading →

The panto of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves has been re-named Snow White and her Seven Friends for its presentation at the De Montford Hall in Leicester.

The theatre’s management say that they changed the title to avoid offending any of their customers uncomfortable with the word “dwarves” And rather than having real dwarves in the production they are having children play the parts of Doc, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Sneezy, Bashful and Dopey. Continue reading →