Old Media

I'm back from Detroit and gearing up for September, which includes blogging on a regular basis again!

The time with my family was tremendously satisfying. The neighbourhood I grew up in was unrecognisable - I misdirected the taxi the first night! The beauty of it all, the lushness and richness and civility I was surrounded by - just staggering! And it contrasted so starkly with the centre of old Detroit, a 20 minute car ride along the gorgeous lakefront of Lake St. Clair.

One day we drove from Jefferson towards I-94 on Woodward Avenue, the 42nd Street of Detroit when I was growing up. The shuttered and gated business premises stood cheek by jowl with deserted twenty story apartment buildings that looked burnt and bombed out. All this within a block or two of the main Detroit Art Gallery and the other museums across from it.

It reminded me of when I was little. I'd look out at the burnt out buildings that lined the expressway for miles on either side, but I never questioned why the city I lived in had such sordid architecture on show for all who drove through.

I accepted a lot of things when I was little. We were a newspaper reading family and I read the New York Times first every Sunday. This time I read the New York Times, the Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press regularly over the course of my visit and I raided the recycle pile to read the Sundays I'd missed.

The NYT on Sunday 14th had the familiar "all the news that's fit to print" in the corner. However, every single front page article either misused statistics or misrepresented the facts as I knew them. The one fact I knew well was that Saturday the 13th was not chaos at Heathrow for British Airways, despite the headline and Titanic allusion:




However, I've had experience of how editors will use a good photograph whatever the story behind it because the Observer had used a great photo of a girl I know crying to illustrate passengers' frustrations.



I was still surprised that the Sunday NYT used her photo too:There is a happy ending to this story, over and above the thousands of air miles and handful of tier points British Airways have given me. I was sitting in Chicago airport late on Monday the 15th, waiting for my millionth connection of the day. In the crowded American Airlines terminal, someone plunked themselves down in the seat next to me. "Carol!" "Djina!" There she was looking as cute as ever with teddy bear in tow.


She filled me in on her "traumatic" times. "British Airways paid for a hotel for me in Charing Cross, food and everything and I've had two days to sightsee around London." "Djina, you were on the front page of the Observer, I put you on my blog." A guy sitting behind us turned around and said "that's a big deal". He typed planningblog into his blackberry and Djina got to see how touching she looked while crying. She was delighted! I don't believe in coincidence. We were meant to know each other.

Got lost in the game

Another day of showers and sunshine, courtesy of the baggage handlers at British Airways. Their union didn't call for them to down bags so their action should be deemed "unofficial". The word 'strike' has a technical meaning that doesn't apply to these circumstances. There's something fishy about it all too, but I can't get anyone to buy the idea that it's because of the 'Crazy Frog' single.

Here are three photographs of the same girl yesterday. I took two of them and Toby Melville is credited by the Observer as taking the other one. Can you spot the difference?


From the front page of the Observer:

"British Airways was embroiled in fresh controversy last night after it refused to give priority to passengers who have been stranded for days because of a dispute over airline food."

Where to start? This is only the first paragraph too. "Fresh controversy" - well, maybe back at the paper's office, where the controversy could have been that no one who was an experienced air traveller was upset and the paper needed a story.

British Airways has been saying for days that they will reimburse their customers for any one way ticket bought on another airline. Problem is, there are very few tickets to be had. When I checked, it was over £3,000 one way for a four city, eighteen hour flight. I couldn't do it. I would have felt guilty AND tortured by the travelling.

The girl in the photographs above (hi Djina!) sat with me and a handful of others for over four hours. She gently reprimanded me at one point - "some people can't afford that". So for those travellers, British Airways staff were working all day yesterday to arrange flights out on other airlines.



This is Linda, a BA staff member, working on her day off. "The media keep saying it's a strike and it's not! I'm here because Anwar got all his mates in today to help get it sorted. We're not being paid, we're not getting breaks but we want to help the passengers as much as we can." Linda managed to get flights for everyone who queued up to speak to her. At Selfridges last night, Julia at the BA counter said she too had come in to help. "I've done more reissues today than in my entire time working for the company."

I spoke to countless British Airways staff yesterday. Every single one was calm, intelligent and courteous. There's something remarkably positive about a company that has such helpful, loyal staff. I don't think the mainstream media (or "old media" as I like to call it) has any idea how harmful it is to cast aspersions on a great company when it's been hit by an illegal action of this type.

Another disingenuous sentence in the Observer's front page article:

"With no agreement yet reached, union insiders have warned that further unofficial strike action by BA ground staff remains a possibility."

The way this is written, you'd think it was a strike. "Agreement" - since it's unofficial and technically illegal, who is there to reach an - unspecified - agreement with? Quoting union insiders, rather than, say, the Big Issue seller outside my local tube station, gives it a strikey kind of hue, rather than communicating that it's an action being taken for reasons that have nothing to do with BA employment.

Didn't John Lennon say one of the reasons he returned his MBE was because his record hadn't done well in the charts? So shall we say that the 'Crazy Frog' ring tone has just become too much to bear and the unofficial action will continue until the tune drops out of the charts! That's just as valid a reason.

It was interesting to watch all the camera and presenter teams working their way through the tent.









This last camera guy is James of Motion Records. "We're looking for compensation stories but everyone's very chilled." He took a break and answered a few of my questions.

Me: "Been anywhere scary?"

James: "Baghdad. I filmed Trevor MacDonald interviewing Sodhim Hussein just before the first Gulf War. There's a photo of me shaking his hand."

We chatted for ages and he told lots of funny stories. I won't post them until I hear back it's ok. The story about bantering with Tariq Aziz, who'd cut himself shaving, is one I hope he lets me pass on. Fingers crossed for my flight tomorrow!

British Airways

Five emails from British Airways, none very helpful. I've cut and pasted and phoned all the 0800 numbers and nothing worked until I called 1 800 Airways. If you call 800 numbers from the UK you get charged but I was on a mission to speak to someone. No such luck, but an excellent answer machine message so here's confirmation if it was needed - customer service is better in the States.

I've had some great discussions with taxi drivers today. When I need someone who will match me when I'm up for a rant I cross my fingers and flag down a black cab. One guy really got into it, nearly missed the turn by the Windmill Theatre. I felt so knowledgeable, "don't miss the left here, we can go down and cut through on Lexington". Is this my town or what?

Michelle has courage

I just read something on the web that makes my blood boil.

There is a demented woman in Texas saying she's pissed off with Bush because her soldier son was killed in Iraq. Grief has the power to drive you crazy. However, it's been a year now and she seems to be getting worse, must have had the propensity all along.

The disintegrating ranks of old media have latched on to her story to counteract news stories about minor little things like inappropriate use of funds for Air America, or the inability to care about the problems of any hill of beans outside the States.

Michelle Malkin, a popular web journalist, is being sent sickening hate mail because of what she's written about this news item (ie. the looney mum). That's a sobering fact. The good news is one of the items was sent from the hatemailer's work address and he's been sacked. Just need to hear the other two have come a cropper and at least some good will come of this. Read about it here.

More thought needs to be given to hate mail and incitement to violence. It is a crime like stalking, the quality of life of the person (or community) that receives it is adversely affected. Every email message has an IP address attached. Every mad sheik Omar has a postcode. That's the way to find these bad guys.

There should be a monetary value attributed to amount of pain doled out. There are court cases I've heard about - a high school in the States being sued because students there used the school website to bully another kid. The hatemailers called on other students to kill him. The prediction is...millions. Not that money will make it any better for that one high school student. What it will do is send a wake up call to the school governors and parents. I hope the case is won for zillions!

I send my very best wishes to Michelle and her family (she's a mom with a couple of little kids) and I admire her so much for her courage in expressing her opinions and making herself vulnerable to these kinds of attacks. She could sit quietly at home writing romance novels but she's trying to make the world a better place, and I think she already has.

Opposite side of the coin

Tonight the headline in the London Evening Standard is black and bold: (Real Reason Omar Bakri is coming back) - RACE HATE CLERIC HAS HEART OP ON THE NHS.

This proves the guy is bonkers. The doctor who's operating on him just has to be bumped at a tricky moment, or told a great joke when he's supposed to be concentrating. Or the bed clothes need to be inadvertently dirty from a previous patient infected with something horrendous. All of this is standard operating procedure for the NHS therefore innocent of corruption. (I get to read Life at the Bottom next week) Plus, if he died because someone told a joke, that would prove that "language is life threatening" as a colleague gently pointed out a few weeks ago.

Seriously though, is it really possible that he has lived the last 19 years on British state benefits? I've lived here almost that long and never figured out how to do it. Do you go down to the post office and say "I'm having a cash flow problem" and they hand over a cheque? I've always thought it would ravage my soul to go on the dole. Maybe that is what has driven him crazy. He does not have the ability to provide for himself or his family so his ego must be the size of a tic tak.

We're all ducklings now

"Captured, the terror terrapins destined for deportation. Operation Terrapin is underway in Mill Hill after pre-school children ran screaming from the edge of Sheepwash Pond after seeing "the amphibians" (red-eared terrapins) attacking ducklings..."We're using day-old chicks in the bait traps"...The captured terrapins will go to a rescue centre to be microchipped and will then be transported to a special compound in Italy." Now that's great news Evening Standard page 3 Wed 10 August.

Redefining the word Exhilarating

Michael Yon's posts keep getting better. How is that possible, no really, how is it possible to be better than fantastic? Do not start reading this if you don't have much time because you will not be able to stop yourself. Warning, you'll shake for a while afterwards.

Later that same Tuesday

Thank you to everyone who's emailed me about dad. It's interesting to hear that he talked to guys about his military service but I guess that's logical. The first few days after he died there were news items about asteroid showers on Mars (or was it Jupiter?) and I remember thinking that if it was allowed he'd fly over there and watch it first hand.

I hope Nils Thompson had a birds eye view for the Discovery landing this lunchtime. He was a 19 year old US soldier killed by sniper fire in Mosul on Thursday. His memorial service was held yesterday evening - scroll down a bit to see the photos here. Sitting through a service which is conducted next to his boots and helmet must have been difficult. Even when the situation is designed to make you lose it I know it's possible to keep your cool. You just have to be bloody minded and oh-so-determined. I didn't cry at dad's memorial service. I did a reading in the packed church and it's one of my proudest moments. It was tape recorded by a proper sound recordist and I would recommend this to everyone. I promise to be more light hearted tomorrow.

Keeping some Demons Down

Here's an article just begging to be knocked down. "Why I don't trust readers" at Slate, whole thing is here.

According to a Pew survey in the States, the percentage of respondents saying 'they believe most of what they read in their daily newspaper' has dropped from 84 percent in 1985 to 54 percent in 2004. However, 88 percent gave their "daily paper" a favourable rating in 1984 and 80 percent did this year, 2005.

The author of the article says scathingly:

"Your average reader is not to be trusted because he just doesn't know his own mind."

"The average reader can't keep a consistent thought in his head for two minutes."

All because he can't interpret the data in the wider context of media usage and market research methodology.

US newspaper readership is declining. The decline is so significant that many city newspapers are distributing tens of thousands of copies for free, in order to have the right readership statistics to maintain their advertisement prices.

Believing what you read in your local paper and feeling favourably towards it are two different concepts. You can "favour" a publication that keeps you informed about local sports teams (and they can't lie about that!) and provides you with a good entertainment guide and advertising sales alerts, while discounting the "news" that bulks it out.

The author cites a study and it's worth quoting from his article so you can see the holes in the argument too:

"A 2005 Annenberg Public Policy Center survey reveals that the majority of the public can't possibly hold the Blair affair against journalism for the simple reason that his perfidy - the most widely publicized of all journalistic scandals in the last decade- is largely unknown to them....only 31 percent of respondents were familiar with the Blair episode."

You can see the problems with this right? "Majority of the public" - isn't it more important to research lapsed newspaper readers' awareness? particularly NYT readers?

"Only 31 percent" is extremely high awareness for a media story that is over a year old and didn't involve a Hollywood celebrity. Furthermore, that's recalled awareness and one of the interesting aspects of new thinking in neuroscience is knowledge is stored for decision making purposes whether it can be explicitly recalled or not.

All news is entertainment, the truth about what goes on rarely becomes available in a timely fashion. That's why I'm fascinated by blogs. The best ones are written by interesting characters giving their opinions on what they are experiencing, right now, this moment. Like a letter from a good friend rather than a blinkered employee who doesn't have the freedom to tell you what they know.

What is Account Planning? Part One

Account Planning is hard to explain. Paul Feldwick acknowledges this difficulty in his introduction to "Pollitt on Planning":

"...and here we come to the more fundamental reason for republishing these articles - after 30 years, account planning is still capable of generating heated controversy. This is not just an argument about whether it is a 'good thing' or a 'bad thing' (and there are certainly those who are actively critical) but, as with so many revolutionary movements, controversy as to what 'account planning' really means."

According to the late great BMP planning guru Stanley Pollitt, these are the responsibilities of an account planner:

- an expert in research
- use and understand quantitative research, market data and qualitative research
- personally conduct some of the research to develop in-depth understanding of the target
- continuous involvement in the campaign; strategy, creative development and assessing campaign results
- shares equally weighted responsibility with an account manager and creative for creation of effective advertising

(from Pollitt on Planning, edited by Paul Feldwick, 2000)

To this I would add:

- rigorous analysis of all available data
- experienced and confident enough to discount data that seems untrustworthy
- some degree of identification with the target market
- passionate and persuasive personal style
- understand the advertising process
- understand the role of brands in the market
- ethical and sincere motives in an industry not noted for this
- the ability to write a clear, succinct creative brief that distills everything discovered

At the end of his APG presentation on evaluation methods, Feldwick said "everything works sometimes". This is also true for definitions of account planning. The controversy continues - and the revolution has a few more years to run.

Sixty Year Old Photographs

Christmastime 1941 my dad was pulled out of his sleepy suburban DC high school by my grandfather and sent to Georgia Military Academy near Atlanta. He graduated in June 1945 and on his 18th birthday, second of July, he marked the day by joining the Marines.

The battle of Okinawa started first of April and finished July second, his birthday. I'm not going to write a report on that battle as there are stunning articles on the web already. You can read here for details of the horrific casualty figures and implications for the assault on the much bigger island of Japan.

Sixty years ago today President Truman dropped the first of the two atomic bombs he had in his arsenal on the headquarters of the supremely efficient Japanese 2nd Army in Hiroshima. Despite outrageous civilian fatalities the Japanese generals did not consider the possibility of unconditional surrender. This isn't really surprising. They hadn't considered surrendering after the Tokyo fire raid in March which killed almost double the number of civilians as the bomb on Hiroshima. It took the second bomb on Nagasaki and their medieval worship of their emperor who urged capitulation to secure a cease fire and ultimately the end of their aggressive war.

PJ O'Rourke wrote in "Peace Kills":

"After Iwo Jima a few more big World War II battles took place, notably in Berlin and on Okinawa. But it wasn't long before sensitive, intelligent nations evolved beyond such things - even if Hiroshima, one of those cataclysmic events common to evolutionary history, was required to spark the progress."

My dad never talked about his military service. I remember only one conversation with him on the subject:

Me: Do you ever regret that you didn't see any action, any fighting on a battlefield in the second world war?

Poppa: (dropping his jaw and looking at me in amazement, then, after a pause) No! Truman saved my life.

He had a dusty photograph album hidden away in his office at home. After he died we all looked through it and I saved a few photos. He also had an enormous Marine corps ring in a box with some tie pins and baby teeth. I have no idea what those meant to him but I know what he meant to me.

Things that make me laugh

As we sail into the weekend, it seems to me that this past week has gone by and I haven't had one moment when I've laughed uproariously. Sure, there have been low key breaths let out that almost have the "heh" sound, but nothing to compare with the laughs on Sunday. So this post is devoted to humour, what's struck me as funny over the last few days.

Last Sunday I had dinner with an Irish friend and his fiance from Texas. She's an interesting girl. Calmly shot the guy who climbed over her windowsill in Dallas one night. "Where?" She pushed me very hard in the left shoulder. "I aimed for his shoulder." Then she called the police. The problem? "They don't give you a trophy if you don't kill him." (heh)

The orange (heh) leaflet I was handed at the train station headed "'Communities Together' can help fight the effects of terrorism in London" Funny punctuation, funny content.

"The recent terrorist events were not committed by any community. They were criminal acts carried out by a small number of people. But the Metropolitan Police recognises that communities across London may feel vulnerable, confused and angry as a result of these events."

The back page: "What do I do if I suffer abuse?" Ten contacts, including Fair Forum Against Islamophobia & Racism and Muslim Safety Forum. Nothing for oppressed American immigrants and it's just not fair! I pointed this out to a policeman holding leaflets and he burst out laughing.

Article in the Times yesterday, headline "Women urged to drop hijab". (heh) It's actually about Sheikh Badawi's advice to stop wearing hijabs "in the present circumstances". Reminds me of the story my friend told me, even the prostitutes in Indonesia have to wear burkas, won't get the business otherwise. (cynical laughter)

Last night's episode of The Extras was the best so far. One of the best bits: "Do you believe in God?" "I'm an atheist." "Why?" "Look, the burden of proof isn't on ME." Plus everything Kate Winslett said and did, just thinking about her guilty look at getting caught out!

Here's an interesting article about some Iraqi women in DC, trying to raise awareness of the suppression of women's rights in the constitution that's being drafted for their country. I've got a friend from Dallas I'd like them to meet.

You can tell when people are taking digital photos. They take the photo then lower their camera and squint hard at the back. I call it 'the digital squint' and see it everywhere in downtown London.


Here's a board at Notting Hill tube station, just waiting to be written on.

One of my favourite sayings is: "In this instance I am clearly right and you are clearly wrong." It's a quote from Buffy, Season Two, Episode: 'I Only Have Eyes for You' and here it is in full:

GILES: "I appreciate your thoughts on the matter, I, in fact, I, I encourage you to always challenge me when you feel it is appropriate. You should never be cowed by authority, except, of course, in this instance when I am clearly right and you are clearly wrong."

Great search engines

I am over google. I deleted google news from my favourites a long time ago. The google computer has been hijacked and the listings allow all sorts of filth to be searched for, and you know, who needs that when you've got:

altavista
all the web
mooter
kartoo

Good luck Cilla, the speech sounded great.

Singing the blues for Steven Vincent

Steven Vincent has been murdered. I can't say anything better than Michelle Malkin, Michael Yon, the folks at Powerline and Little Green Footballs.

However, I have an idea. Let's change the spelling to Shite when referring to the Shite Islamist fundamentalists and forget forever the punctuation mark in his honour. Are the Brits still in Basra? (I know they are.) Will they be as organised as the Brits here in London? (That is my hope).

Simon Scharma on 'History of Britain' called the Reformation "a cosmic battle". When does our cosmic battle end? I need Robert Johnson and Peter Green on the deck right now.

I've stones in my passway, my road seems dark as night
I've got stones in my passway, the road seems dark tonight
And these pains in my heart: they have taken my appetite.
Robert Johnson's lyrics, 1937

Shameless plug on the tube

Not afraid! It's interesting when an armed policeman gets on the tube carriage. Not good, but that's life in the city at the moment.

In Dublin, when you walk in the centre of town, everyone gives you a jolly good look. That's because they're trying to figure out if they know you. In London, the normal way to walk on the street is looking at the ground, because all the loose paving stones can trip you up! However, these days everyone's head is up and we're all looking at each other's faces. I've had so many half smiles these last few days. Everyone's looking and that's good, isn't it?