Borkowski Weekly Media Trends: Phil & Holly, Taylor Swift & MORE

PLUS: is there more than meets the FBI to Mass Shooting PSA?

Have we had our Phil of This Morning Duo?

Phillip Schofield's presenting career is in jeopardy after a dizzying spree of showbiz scoops claiming tension within This Morning's team. Ever since Timothy Schofield, Phil's brother, was convicted of 11 sexual offences involving a child, rumours have escalated across social media and the showbiz press, culminating in a nightmare week for Phillip.

Considering Phillip had plenty of time since his brother's conviction to work on a robust communication and crisis strategy, his decision to give an emotional statement to The Sun was a reputational own goal, airing tensions and the equivalent of throwing petrol on a flame.

The Sun revealed that Phil & Holly barely speak off camera, citing issues that were rumbling for some time, adding that Holly was blindsided by Phillip's claims, which isolates him in this situation, leading to reports in the Mail that ITV bosses, namely This Morning Editor Martin Frizell, are "fed up" with cleaning up Phil's mess.

Once an undisputed national treasure, echoed by Frizell's comments that he was once willing to take "bullets" for him, Phillip Schofield's career is in tatters.

But is this situation salvageable? Whilst this is a messy situation, much of the discourse surrounding Schofield are personal attacks, and much of social media is awash with gossip and hearsay. As many industry insiders will know, rumours have been floating over Schofield's head for several years, which have escalated in pockets of Twitter and TikTok. Schofield must set the record straight (hard to know what this is without advising Phil ourselves) and take time away from the spotlight. Getting Holly onside is critical to rebuilding his reputation. It's not too late, but Schofield must do a better job working with crisis and reputation specialists, as his recent strategies have landed him in hot water.

Swift’s Selling Superpower

Unless you are cloistered away in a particular corner of the internet, Taylor Swift is pretty much ubiquitous these days. Returning to stadium stages and her campaign for world domination, Swift’s US tour has graced more than one UK newspaper front stage, despite not having a single European date announced. Thanks to a pretty voracious and social media obsessed fanbase, it might feel that Swift has rarely been out of the spotlight.

But echoing fellow pop super star Adele, who went from near invisibility to barely disappearing from our screens in Autumn 2021 to coincide with her “30” album, Taylor’s rollercoaster ride of fame is nothing if not meticulously timed. After surprise dropping two albums during the Covid years with minimal fanfare, her most recent release Midnights and the subsequent Eras tour has come complete with a headline stealing breakup, an internet breaking ticket scramble, salacious new relationship rumours and a revival of the once inescapable “girl squad.”

And now, in one of the more wild stories circulating Swift-dom, an as yet unnamed and anonymous book has become a bestseller after fans applied their special brand of sleuthing in a determined effort to prove this is Taylor’s long promised memoir: Her favourite number is 13, the book has 544 pages, these digits add up to the lucky number – the conclusion is obvious. While it is now being widely reported that KPop superstars BTS are more likely authors, it’s impossible not to admit that it’s a special kind of superpower that an even rumoured association with a celebrity can cause this much furore and persuade so many people to part with their hard earned cash. It seems that even the cossy lives is no match for Taylor Swift.  

‘Run Hide Fight’ PSA - More than meets the FBI?

After another tragic spree of mass shootings the FBI’s infamous Run Hide Fight PSA once again trended on social and in traditional media.

The four-minute long video gives step-by-step survival advice during a recreation of a mass shooting.

For those of us in countries where gun crime is virtually non-existent the idea that mass shootings are sufficiently prevalent and unavoidable to merit a public information campaign is utterly nightmarish and the advice in the video itself would be futile in many scenarios, but maybe that’s not the point.

The FBI is notionally politically neutral and thus gagged from making direct statements on the USA’s shambolic lack of gun control regulation. Add into this the lurking threat of a congressional investigation into the bureau’s alleged anti-Trump, anti-Republican bias and a direct comment on gun laws becomes even riskier.

There’s a theory circulating that the video is a subtle signal from the FBI in support of tighter gun control. In the negative space around the messaging in the video is the implication that mass shootings are inevitable in the current climate and the FBI can’t protect you. That’s a pretty powerful argument for the FBI to hand over to the gun control lobby and it’s plausible that they’ve done so on purpose.

Some are even saying there’s a coded message in the line “if you control the weapon, you control the shooter” but the fact that the video, on the surface at least, appears to accept the current reality of near-unfettered gun access in large parts of the country gives the bureau deniability should any Republican or NRA gun nuts accuse them of coming out in favour of gun control. If that is this grizzly PSA’s intention, it’s a cleverly executed piece of PR. Whatever its intention, the Run. Hide. Fight PSA is an inescapably powerful piece of anti-gun propaganda.