Borkowski Media Trends: Biden: His Time? | Mark Borkowski on Novak Djokovic | Celebs aboard the Euros Bandwagon & MORE
PLUS: Katy Perry's World? || Election rundown one week on
Biden his time, or on borrowed time?
The worst possible thing that can happen during a PR crisis is losing control of the narrative, as perfectly demonstrated by the Biden campaign’s toe curling week. Following the octogenarian candidate’s dismal performance against former President Trump during a television debate, the calls for Biden to hang up his boots reached a fever pitch. Spokespeople alternately blamed jet lag (from a trip taken a full week prior) and then a cold. But the clamouring only grew, with Democratic colleagues in the House of Representatives stepping forward to break ranks and call for new blood.
On Monday an attempt was made to grab hold of the quickly spiralling situation in the form of open letter from the President to his party, stating in no uncertain terms that he is “firmly committed to staying in this race.” But the cracks had been given too long to spread, and a strong statement of intent only works if there is no backtracking. Biden’s blunders continued at the all important Nato summit in New York, where he referred to President Zelensky of Ukraine as President Putin, and called his running mate Kamala Harris, Vice President Trump. The footage is recommended only for those with incredibly high cringe thresholds.
But it’s not just these painfully obvious gaffes that continue to plague Biden – the brittle defensiveness of his recent interactions with the media are becoming harder to differentiate from his satsuma coloured opponent. With every sneer at legitimate questions on his suitability for a role, every garbled response to his obvious deterioration, every patronising reference to a journalist as “pal”, the chance of regaining any hold on this train wreck of a campaign grows smaller and smaller. And with it, the damage to the reputation of the USA on the world’s stage becomes harder and harder to ignore.
Mark Borkowski on Novak Djokovic vs the Fame Game
Check out Mark’s op-ed on Novak Djokovic, Elon Musk, and why fame and success don’t always equate to popularity, in today’s Guardian:
One of the most recognisable people in the world for almost two decades, on the tennis court Djokovic often carries the aura of an invincible demigod. But in the court of public opinion, he has often shown himself to be a mere mortal.
So why the discrepancy between fame, success and popularity?
Celebs Board the England Euros Bandwagon
And so, is it coming home? A faultless penalty shootout followed by a win over the Netherlands has set up back to back Euros finals for the English national football team, suggesting that the thirty (plus thirty) years of hurt may at last be coming to a close. Predictably, this has pervaded every aspect of the week’s culture, in ways both expected and not-so: football fan James Corden delayed the start of his Old Vic play The Constituent by 10 minutes to allow for the audience to see the penalties, while The Killers let Ollie Watkins’ Wednesday night winner lead into an encore of Mr Brightside.
While Corden and The Killers arguably occupy vastly different regions of public affection in 2024, it’s undeniable that they represent totemic pillars of 00s British lad culture. As such, it’s perhaps unsurprising to see them incorporate sporting success into their shows like this and certainly both incidents generated headlines. But the endless cynicism of football fans, from which not even the team itself has been spared this tournament, seemed to receive one more favourably than the other – while no one would doubt Corden’s credentials as a football fan (he featured on the fairly dismal 2010 World Cup song, Shout for England), the general antipathy towards him could not be outweighed by one, apparently genuine, moment of audience bonding. Theatre fans were also dismayed at the idea of a delayed performance, noting that Corden should have been doing his job instead of watching the football (this, of course, conveniently ignores the front-of-house nightmare of audience members watching the shootout on their phones during the play itself.)
The Killers, however, seemed to tap into the public mood much more successfully, although they were certainly aided by Mr Brightside, that perennial favourite of football fans, and a song which has acquired the kind of ubiquity in British culture not seen since the heady days of Mel B zig-ah-zig-ahing. Had England lost the match, it might have been something of a damp squib to then hear that final song, but this was a wise bet on behalf of the band and one that seems to have paid off, generating arguably their biggest press coverage in years.
The difference between the two responses, however, usefully highlights how the public coalition and PR machine behind the England national football team itself is shaky at best and fractured at worst, and is simply not enough on its own to support the weight of a damaged reputation as heavy as Corden’s. We might now be gearing up for a second national final in three years, but merely 10 days ago there were calls for Southgate to be sacked. This is a tournament that has been beset by dismay – hitching your PR wagon to something so clearly, although evidently forgettably, fractious, may not be the best tactic.
Katy Perry’s Reinvention…or lack thereof
Katy Perry’s new song: Woman’s World with producer Dr. Luke (Lukasz Gottwald) has faced backlash from the media and public. leaving it far from the career-reigniting success she no doubt hoped for.
The campaign behind the single has been focused on reviving her legendary sex appeal. At the beginning of Katy’s career this worked was key to her success: the sexually liberated small town from religious Santa Barbara.
Fifteen years and several eras later, the just-released music video shows Katy Perry walking around in a bikini and robot legs, doing mechanical work in a barely-there star bra and daisy dukes, and dancing to a TikTok video. From her dress at the Vogue World fashion show last month, to these provocative outfits in the Woman’s World video, Perry continues to shock and draw attention to her body.
But if media reaction is anything to go by, it hasn’t quite gone according to plan. One major source of criticism is that the notional theme of ‘women are the best and you should be lucky to have us in the world’ sits uncomfortably with a campaign that many felt was too nakedly (sorry) cynical to be a truly authentic feminist statement.
Reviewing the single for the Guardian, Laura Snapes described it as “less the trenchant comment on how women are sold the tools of their own disempowerment… than a preview of the Makita power tools calendar 2025.”
Another source of criticism has been the decision to continue working with ‘Dr Luke’ - a pariah for many in the music world after accusations made against him by Kesha. This choice has made it harder for many commentators to buy into the Woman’s World video as empowerment rather than exploitation.
If nothing else, the backlash against Woman’s World is an intriguing case study of how much society has moved on since Perry was first in her pomp. To anyone failing to keep pace with the fame game, the real ‘Woman’s World’ can be brutally unforgiving.
A Week on from the Election: Under our new veneer of Stability, very British Chaos Lingers
As the noise of the general election dies down, we are left with a stonking Labour majority, which means a stable government, a demographically historic and professionally competent cabinet, calm markets, and an early legislative agenda that’s pragmatic but self-assured.
But this is still UK politics in the 2020s, and, almost reassuringly, under this veneer of stability lies a much more characteristic undercurrent of chaos.
Tories’ rebuild off to a rocky start
First there’s the ex-government; the Conservative’s attempts to regroup behind a new leader hit an early stumbling block when details of an explosive Shadow Cabinet meeting were leaked in which leadership hopeful Kemi Badenoch excoriated predecessor Rishi Sunak.
Since the remarks effectively correlated to key leadership campaign messages for Badenoch it was widely speculated that her team was behind them despite her final point emphasising the importance of not leaking the contents of the meeting.
Cue finger pointing and infighting, spearheaded by ex-Minister Suella Braverman – the perfect sideshow…for the new government.
We can’t believe these Reform candidates are real…and that’s just the ones who were elected!
Reform were forced to deny accusations that they had fielded fake candidates notably by a Guardian article and a Glaswegian TikTok sleuth, who had noticed that a lot of their candidates lacked photos, biographies, contact details or online paper trails. Although the consensus is that it’s unlikely that a party would get away with fielding fake candidates in a UK election, the suggestion remains that effective shell candidates, with no real interest in becoming MPs, were parachuted in to far-flung constituencies where Reform were perhaps struggling for relevance.
If that wasn’t enough of a bumpy entry to parliament, the party’s Deputy Leadership changed hands, Ben Habib taking to X to voice his displeasure at being replaced with Richard Tice. There was also mirth about Lee Anderson’s appointment as Chief Whip, and his prospects of ruling with an iron fist over four fellow MPs including his party leader, deputy leader and ex-deputy leader.
Lib Dem’s Bread Wall
Over in Lib Dem land, ‘Operation Cinnamon Bun’ is no longer just a reference to your Sunday morning hangover cure, but rather a key facet of a highly targeted election strategy. An Economist article was among sources to report that the Liberal Democrats specifically focused on constituencies with Gail’s bakeries as part of their efforts to unseat the Tories.
The campaign was born after a staffer developed a spreadsheet of Gail’s sites around England and mapped them according to which party had previously won the seat in 2019 and which had come second. They discovered that around half of the Gail’s locations found outside of London were located in Lib Dem marginals. Although there was no formal strategy where Gail’s towns were directly selected for campaigning, slogans like ‘Get out the Gail’s Vote’ and ‘Operation Cinnamon Bun’ were banded around, with activists on the party’s election bus, as Gail’s bakeries became a prominent feature of the towns visited.
A key part of successful PR is attracting the right audiences and getting people’s attention. Sending copious party political messaging into the ether is pointless, messaging needs to land and stick with potential voters. Identifying a key common thread ‘Gail’s’ let the Lib Dems hone in on their voting groups and tailor their content accordingly. Working with less resources and publicity than Labour and the Tories, using the Gail’s metric to rapidly identify potential campaign targets let the Lib Dems deploy their activists with extreme efficiency. A strategy which arguably paid off.
Other groups of potential Lib Dem voters had been identified earlier in the year and campaign messaging and target towns adjusted accordingly. ‘Waitrose Women’, women aged 40-60 who had traditionally voted Conservative but were increasingly frustrated by the Tories’ trashing of traditional institutions, and ‘M&S Movers’ 25-40 year olds who had moved from London to the Home Counties post-pandemic to raise their families were other identified targets.
Unfortunately for the Lib Dems, Gail’s has failed to expand further North than Chester, leaving a whole host of constituencies untapped. Maybe next election they’ll roll out a more northern friendly strategy – Operation Gregg’s?