The Peppermint elves lend a charitable hand at Christmas

This week, seven Peppermints donated a day to help out at Manchester-based charity The Mustard Tree.

Upon the Peppermints’ arrival we were given a tour of the charity’s facilities, and introduced to some inspirational people along the way, before being divided up for our day’s duties. Emma and David whizzed off to help the van drivers with the daily donation collections; Alice was sent to exercise her culinary skills in the kitchen, preparing lunch for 50 people on a budget of just £15; Haydn and Joanna offered advice to those who were actively seeking work in the ‘job club’; while Aimee and I were tasked with a creative challenge involving The Mustard Tree’s upcoming launch of a new branch in Eccles.

It’s all part of ‘Project Peppermint’ – a programme centered on Peppermint’s pledge to dedicate time to the wider community and charitable organisations. The day we spent at The Mustard Tree was also a chance to gain a rare insight into this inspirational charity and witness the amazing work the staff perform day to day.

The time we spent at The Mustard Tree was a truly humbling experience. What struck me most is how easy it is to give up a day to carry out voluntary work, but how much difference your time can make to the charity. It just goes to show that a small amount of effort can provide an enormous help, while also being lots of fun. There are so many ways to help out at The Mustard Tree – I heartily recommend anyone to get involved. I promise you won’t regret it!

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Tags: charity, Eccles, Manchester, Mustard Tree, Peppermint, pr, volunteering

Work experience? Sure! That’ll be £100 a day

Another disconcerting sign of the times. University leavers are now being charged up to £100 a day for the privilege of gleaning the work experience that they hope will be their golden ticket to employment.

The logic is that small or otherwise inaccessible companies can now be compensated for throwing open their doors to graduates desperate to secure a job.

One of the positions on offer at Etsio, the website behind the initiative, is £100 a day to carry out “administrative work at a vitamin-selling website”. This seems like a profoundly bum deal to me.  Leaving to one side the fact that “administrative work” is not necessarily a phrase that would light a potential employee’s fire, a single day’s work is neither here nor there. So the graduates will presumably have to look at forking out hundreds of pounds to amass any meaningful work experience. Clearly, something that only those with well-off parents will be able to afford.

As an employer (and a mum who will one day be gunning for her own kids to be given a break), I’m eager to help out this generation of graduates who have it so much harder than I ever did. Hence the number of graduates and even sixth formers who we welcome for a week’s taste of PR. Many of them have been outstanding and an absolute delight to have around. Some, to be frank, not so much.

Why a week?  Because anything less is largely a waste of time for both parties. Why not the months on end that many beleaguered graduates work at some companies, without being paid a penny? Because it’s immoral and exploitative.

There’s no getting away from the fact that accommodating work experience is a time-consuming and often inconvenient business.  Finding something constructive and educational for your visitors to do, briefing them, handholding them, feeding back to them, and then – frequently – redoing what they’ve completed… that’s a big ask for an already stretched account handler.

But the lovely letters of thanks we regularly receive from young people convince me that it’s worth it. So, thanks all the same, but we won’t be charging for work experience.

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Tags: Internships, Peppermint PR, pr, Work experience

The darker side of beauty

It’s disappointing – though sadly not at all shocking – to see today’s publicity shots of singer Rebecca Ferguson all over the morning papers.

The beautiful mixed race singer looks deceptively white in a set of images which have clearly been tampered with.

Now, I’m not completely against air brushing. If I had to have my mug plastered all over the world’s press, I’d quite happily let them hide the odd pimple or touch up any dark circles. That being said, this is something altogether different.

Rebecca is the latest in a long line of stars to find themselves sporting much lighter hues in their promotional materials. While her spokesperson has shrugged it off as a trick of the studio light, I find the pictures far more sinister. Surely someone noticed during the production and distribution of the images that they were not a true reflection of the star’s natural skin colour? Why is it then, that no one saw this as a problem? Or worse, why is it that someone saw this as a positive outcome?

Actions like this perpetuate beliefs that someone’s natural colour, shape or size is something to be ashamed of. The celebrities who find themselves in this situation are role models to millions of children. They should be helping their fans to embrace their differences, not change the basic fundamentals of who they are.

Sadly, not everyone agrees. Some would even argue that darker skin is lightened so as not to alienate white consumers. Personally, I find this thinking pretty offensive. I would think that most people, whatever their skin colour, would agree.

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Tags: air brushing, Rebecca Ferguson

A sign of the times

It was announced yesterday afternoon that, after 156 years, the Liverpool Daily Post is to become a weekly paper as of January 2012. This is sad news for many -– myself included, as I grew up reading the paper on Merseyside.

The Daily Post is one of the longest running and most prestigious regional newspapers in the UK. Despite Liverpool’s population rising tenfold in the last 20 years, the paper’s circulation has dropped to a mere 8,000 paid-for sales per month. Speaking about the news yesterday, its editor Mark Thomas said: “We appreciate that the world is changing: people’s buying habits and news consumption requirements are very different.”

As Thomas observes, the ways in which people view and consume news have changed radically over recent years.  In an age of smartphone apps and Kindle subscriptions, people – and the younger generation in particular – are no longer popping to the shop for a pint of milk and the local paper.

As a PR agency based in the North West, it’s clearly crucial for us to pay close attention to the newspapers in the region and do our best to support them, as well as being quick to adapt to the changes they make. These are challenging times for the media industry as a whole, but as one door closes, another opens, with online syndication throwing up a plethora of new PR opportunities.

I for one certainly hope this is merely a new beginning for the Liverpool Daily Post, rather than the beginning of the end.

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Tags: Liverpool Daily Post, Merseyside, North West, PR Agency, regional newspaper

Oh what a night!

There are lots of sore heads at Peppermint Towers this morning – but they’re more than worth it.  For the second year running, we scooped the silver award for Outstanding Public Relations Consultancy at the CIPR PRide awards last night…so to say we’re over the moon is an understatement! We were up against some really brilliant agencies so we’re especially delighted to have our team recognised by the CIPR.

A big congratulations to every one of the finalists and winners – we have a lot to be proud of in the NW.

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Tags: CIPR, North West, Peppermint, pr, PR Agency, PRide awards, Public Relations Consultancy