College-room project that turned into a global phenomenon – Facebook hits the 500 million users mark

Friday, July 23rd, 2010

Facebook announced that it now has 500 million users which means (according to The Guardian) that a whopping 43 per cent of Brits are regularly logging on. You can’t argue with that! We all remember Rage Against the Machine beating X-Factor’s latest hopeful (it was that Joe guy, right?) to the ...

Not bad for a 71-year-old…a social media campaign from Old Spice that got it so very right!

Wednesday, July 14th, 2010

Old Spice − a good Christmas present for granddad and a logo resembling the Blue Peter ship. These were the first thoughts that sprung to mind which is hardly surprising considering it’s a 71-year-old brand.  How very wrong I was… Something rather exciting was going on in the Twittersphere last night. ...

If the cap (or drink, or car, or shoe) fits…

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010

Yesterday, in my first glimpse of daytime TV since my student days, I caught a lively debate about the proposed guidelines for broadcast product placement.  The focus of the discussion was the ‘P’ symbol that will appear before and after programmes to warn viewers that they contain product placement. The gist ...

More teens want to go under the knife. Is our celebrity-obsessed media to blame?

Monday, June 21st, 2010

  According to a piece in today’s Sun, nearly half of teenage girls want cosmetic surgery to boost their confidence, stop being bullied or look like a celebrity. The initial reaction in the office was that of shock and horror – the girls surveyed were between the ages of 13 and 16 ...

Freedom of information – friend or foe?

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

This week will mark the fifth anniversary of a crucial piece of Labour legislation – one which has single-handedly provided some of the decade's most shocking and widely read news stories. On New Year's Day 2005, the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act was introduced across all levels of the public sector, ...