If you’re planning a protest, maybe you’re a Liverpool fan or your child benefit is being taken away then take a look at the French for inspiration. Many French workers are stepping up their protests against pension reforms next week, a top trade union leader says. Bernard Thibault, head of the CGT workers’ confederation, made the statement as union leaders prepared to discuss plans to hold a seventh day of national protests across France. The French are in a mad panic because they might have to retire at 62, whereas I doubt I’ll get to retire ever; and keep paying for other peoples...

One of the most prized assets for sports teams is the name of their home ground, and a massive benefit for a sponsor to have its brand inserted in the name of a stadium hosting FIFA World Cup matches. Despite forking out an arm and a leg, not all commercial partners will get access to this massive global audience however.   When the Argentina v Nigeria game kicked off in Johannesburg’s Coca-Cola Park last Saturday, you won’t have heard the TV and radio commentators referring to the soft-drinks company as the stadium’s sponsor, and newspapers refrained from mentioning it in their match...

Recent research by Leapfrog shows that consumers will be pleased to know their favourite brands are home grown, and business should be keen to show off this fact.   Just over a quarter of people (26%) say they actively support British business because they want to keep money in the country. And 23% worry that if a brand is sold to a foreign company, it will lose its British identity. Understanding a product’s provenance is also a reason for 22% of people to buy British.   When people are out shopping, they like to see British brands on supermarket shelves, says research director Sarah Buckle....

Promotional products can be of one aspect of a marketing strategy for practical any organisation. If done well, they can be a great PR tool, which will raise the businesses profile to a great degree.   However your public’s perception of you can easily be blotted! Take the Conservative party for example, with their constant stream of PR stunts they hatch (watch David Cameron at home on Youtube – great), you’d think we’d all be voting blue this May.   More than a third of voters feel the Conservative Party’s reputation has been hit by recent stories about the tax s­tatus of deputy...

Google hasn’t been out of the news of late, their recent controversy surrounds their lack of patience with the ever suspicious China. The internet giant has said it may end its dealings in China, after a “sophisticated and targeted” cyber attack originating from the country.   Google’s David Drummond, SVP, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer, made the big announcement on the Google blog. As it turns out, Google discovered that what first appeared to be a random cyber attack on their company, was actually a concerted effort against various organisations. The story...

Controversial confectionery supplier Nestle has announced that Kit Kat bars will be Fairtrade certified from 2010. They have launched a print ad campaign to coincide with the certification, carrying the line ‘Have a break, have a Fairtrade Kit Kat’.   The ad explains Nestle’s on-going sustainability drive, ‘The Cocoa Plan’, through which it promises to invest £65m over the next 10 years to increase agricultural assistance, promote sustainable farming methods and improve social conditions for farmers working in the Ivory Coast.   Funnily enough it doesn’t mention their;...

Posh supermarket giant Waitrose has decided to pull the plug, on its UK TV Ads with Fox News (On Sky) after controversial comments from one of the channels leading commentators – Glenn Beck.   It was back in July, that Beck described President Obama as racist. His comments are laughable as he said the president’s reaction to the arrest of a black academic Henry Louis Gates in Cambridge, Massachusetts proved him to be “a guy who has a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture. I don’t know what it is…”. Not exactly ‘proof’ surely, and when was...

The official “cool list” for hipsters to keep an eye on by Cool Brand’s, reveals a new but unsurprising champion in the shape of the Apple iPhone. Despite the so called credit crunch, the unprecedented success of the iPhone this year, which has sold five million units between March and June, led to it rising from second to the number one spot.   The last three previous years, Aston Martin has been the coolest kid around, probably as the luxury car manufacturer is immediately synomous with James Bond. The shortlist for the survey is compiled by 2,500 voters. The final twenty are voted on by a...

If you work in PR, and you and your colleagues fancy yourselves as the next Max Clifford, then  teams have just four weeks left to snap up a table for the industry’s ‘Oscars’ – the PR Week Awards 2009.   If you deserve some glitz and glamour, then the show-bizz event will be held on the 20 October at Grosvenor House on Park Lane, London – the home of all the UK’s great awards ceremonies – and is the PR industry’s biggest night of the year. This year, the judging panel iss headed by Mr Ian Wright, corporate relations director at Diageo. Tables will be sold and positions...

The Mayor of London’s office wants to rebrand London and is inviting agencies to tender to create the new image.   Mayor Boris Johnson and his team have allocated a budget of £600,000 to create a new logo and identity for the city ahead of the 2012 Olympics, and want to have this in place by next spring.   The Mayor’s office is inviting agencies to tender for four contracts related to the new identity: designing the logo; brand activation, which could include advertising and experiential activity; tracking; and evaluation and events. Dan Ritterband, the director of marketing at the Mayor...