You are what you eat

This week, there was another attempt at scaring the country into doing more exercise. Inactivity was hailed as being as dangerous for us as smoking. Now these scare tactics aren’t unusual, every week we are told to stop eating one thing or another.

Just 24 hours later, eggs, once again, make it onto the ‘good foods’ list. It’s no surprise that through all this ‘you can eat that- you can’t eat this’ nonsense we are becoming a nation that is fed up of food fads, ‘brain foods’ and ‘celebrity diets’.

The UK has one of the most inactive populations with, over 60% of adults doing less than their recommended quota. Maybe with the arrival of the Olympics on our doorstep next week, we will be ‘inspired’ to do more? Maybe we will have a new society of Jessica Ennis’ in years to come.    

Being in an office, I, as you would expect, spend the majority of my day seated. Attending meetings - I’m seated, making calls - I’m seated, having lunch - I’m seated. I also very rarely make it past 10.30am without having something to eat. This has been made increasingly difficult with the level of homemade cakes and muffins sneaking into the office.

I am, however, one of those crazy people who does actually enjoy exercise – although I am currently in a lot pain after a body attack class last night (yes, it is as bad as it sounds) - but because of this, I find I can quite easily achieve the recommended two and a half hours a week.

With long, busy working days, a ready meal is the welcome home most people are after and the last thing on their mind is 100 abdominal crunches.

How much exercise we should be doing and how many vitamins we should be swallowing  changes as often as Rihanna’s hair colour, so knowing what’s best is almost impossible.  

I say, have that doughnut – just be prepared to put the work in if you want to look like Jessica Alba on the beach this summer.

 By Stephanie Rock

Going Underground

As a London Lover and frequent visitor to the city, I have done my fair share of travelling by train. I have complained when trains are late and moaned at the lack of seats just as much as the next person.  However, this week as a newbie at Wordville, not only have I gained an insight to the world of PR, and perhaps more importantly learnt how the Mayor likes her tea (tea bag flirts with water but the relationship goes no further), I have also seen a new side to the British public on the trains.

Tuesday saw the Olympic test run on London transport in five of the city’s major stations in preparation for - as Boris kindly reminds us at every station in town – “The Big One”. This event went largely unnoticed at Charing Cross, with the only minor difference being the erection of a play pen in the middle of the station. This rather snug area is supposed to house the extra one million visitors to our city.

Those who were unlucky enough to pass through London Bridge on Tuesday would have experienced something different altogether, as exits were blocked off and commuters were herded cattle-like through the only entrance. This exercise, which was minutely dissected by papers and passengers, further angered the already enraged species that is the London commuter.

 Nevertheless, I have found this week that these Londoners- who are always ready to moan about the commute, the extortionate fares, the lack of seats and daily delays- possess an air of camaraderie. Yes it’s true that the majority of Charing Cross bound passengers will sit on the aisle seat and leave what some might consider an excessive amount of space on the escalators, but I have also witnessed acts of kindness amongst commuters – strangers – which have restored my faith in humankind.

As I browsed through the Metro each morning on the tube, I was attracted to the Good Deed Feed – a section in which readers text in, expressing their thanks to strangers, friends and family who have done a good deed.  I was left truly heartened by this column. One woman gave thanks to “the kind lady” who woke her up at her station, another dedicated her text to “the young man in the peaked cap” for topping up her oyster card when she was late and had forgotten her purse. Just this morning, I saw a man helping an elderly woman off the train, another passing a gentleman his umbrella after leaving it on the seat.

So whilst everyone who endures an extended daily commute during the Olympics is sure to complain, and there will still be those that leave a bag on the seat in an attempt to create a personalised Olympic challenge – I am sure that if you look carefully enough, you will see small, but incredibly significant good deeds, which will make you proud to be a Londoner.

By Francesca Rock

Sowing the seeds of change

Yesterday I read an article in the Metro that touched a nerve; and whilst I am of course devastated that Tom Cruise will keep his £180 million pound fortune, that was not it.

No, the story that caught my attention was on the sad state of British farming and the dire need for more young people to enter into the Industry.

Some might find my interest in this matter startling. I was born in London and am a city girl at heart- I even enjoy the tube. Nevertheless, at the age of five my family moved to the depths of Suffolk, a land of Labradors and Land Rovers, where I, rather unwittingly, received an education in the rural way of life.

Now I know that being intermittently woken by a combine harvester throughout my formative years does not me a farming expert make. However, I suspect many will agree with me that the industry has received its fair share of bad press and perhaps more than its share of media and public relations disasters.

In 1988 the British egg industry was thrown into crisis when Edwina Currie made the unqualified announcement that the majority of British eggs contained Salmonella.  Less than a decade later, and the beef industry was in similar turmoil. With the nation in the grip of BSE fear, MP John Gummer decided to very publicly feed his four-year-old daughter a beef burger in what has become one of the most spectacular PR failures in the history of agriculture. Not only did the move illustrate Gummer’s own stupidity, but also it implied a gun-ho governmental attitude, which left people wondering whether following regulation guidelines was enough to ensure their health. 

In recent years things have got slightly better. The rise of the yuppie framer has been a phenomenon I have watched with interest, as high profile advocates of the rural way of life up sticks and head for Cornwall/ Dorset/ the Cotswolds for a life of foraging and organic rare-breed nurture.  A number of TV case studies with high profile participants have highlighted the trend. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall , perhaps the pioneer, has since been followed by many others, including Jamie Oliver’s mate Jimmy, who’s thoughtfully named ‘Jimmy’s Farm’ is not far from my family’s home in Suffolk.

Although I am very much a supporter of this type small –scale production, and am thrilled that urban farming and self-sustainment are going through such a renaissance, I am dismayed that large scale agriculture remains untouched by the popularity of this niche offshoot.  But am I surprised?

As I write this, one ear is on the news, where reports of farmers marching on Whitehall in protest of falling milk prices dominate the headlines.  When the prevailing message is one of hardship and frustration, spoken by a stereotypically aging, rotund and bedraggled industry representative, is it any wonder that young people are giving farming a wide birth?

Having been bought up amongst farmers, I am more than aware of the individual benefits of professional farming- a healthy lifestyle, working outdoors and a slightly archaic, but still evident, prominence amongst the local community. If the farming industry is serious about attracting more young people to take up the farming mantel, they need to get PR savvy. Move agricultural PR on from crisis management and start to proactively engage with a relevant audience. Get decent, passionate representatives and shout about how great it is.

By Polly Robinson

Viva Spice

So this week the media has been dominated by various stories – Jimmy Carr and that tax loophole, the Barclays libor rate scandal, Prince Charles’ paternal generosity etc. Nevertheless, there is one story that has had me gripped, updating my twitter feed, and glued to news...

The revelation of Spice Girls: The Musical.

I was part of the Spice crazy generation - I still am. Back in the 1990s there was a Spice for every girl in the world- my personal favourite always being Sporty.  They dominated our newspapers and TVs and, 15 years later, they're once again causing quite the sensation.

With the new musical set to take centre stage in December, the Spice women have received a fair bit of flack lately. The media have attacked them with a relish usually reserved for Nigel Farange/ Silvio Berlusconi– criticising the superficial friendship between the five women, their lack of talent and their single-grouped destruction of feminism.

Now I think back to my seven-year-old self- my childish infatuation with the five women - and I didn’t see any of that. What I saw were five powerful, independent, brave, daring, bold women. They told us girls that we could be whatever we wanted, and all we needed were our friends.

I personally don’t see anything wrong with the fact they screamed ‘Girl Power’ across the globe all those years ago, but I find it impressive that the media are so quick to blame and scrutinise them now. Suddenly they have become social scapegoats, apparently responsible for a litany of wrongs, from binge drinking and Saturday night promiscuity to 'happy-slapping.' The exact same voices which once sung their praises, are now only too happy to sneer at their come-back.

In hindsight, and in light of the autobiographical revelations that followed the split, these women didn’t best embody the term ‘Girl Power’. Nevertheless, at the time even the critics of today had a soft spot for the five girls. At the height of their fame, they were a united, unstoppable global force. ‘Girl Power’, be it founded in fraud or not, mobilised a generation of girls to believe in themselves and achieve.

They may not be classic role models, but the Spice Girls taught me a few crucial life lessons:

1. I can be anything I want to be
2. A close network of actual friends are the key to happiness
3. To keep step with the media, we must be constantly on our toes

Oh… And whilst I’m more than happy to belt out Mamma I love you at the top of my lungs, you’ll be pleased to know that the crop top/ tracksuit bottoms/ platform trainers combo, will remain firmly in my 90s wardrobe.

By Pema Seely

Twitter Reinvents Itself

Twitter got itself a makeover last week- including a brand new logo - and all apparently for the benefit of advertisers.

Two years ago Mark Zuckerberg took to the stage at the Cannes Advertising Festival. Last week Jack Dorsey, creator of Twitter, stood in exactly the same position, pitching his vision for the future to the marketing industry. The event has always attracted executives, but the social media boom has widened its audience, and last week the world’s media had their cameras firmly trained on the stage. Consequently Dorsey won Media Person of the Year and dominated the press. 

Twitter’s plan is to improve its technology, allowing multi-national brands to manage conservations and campaigns in different countries from the same accounts.

The Californian-based company has high aspirations and plans to roll out its advertising products – promoted tweets, promoted trends and promoted accounts - to 50 territories by the end of the year.

It seems the six-year-old tech company has a lot on its plate for the next six months. Un-phased by the amount of work to do, Chief Executive Dick Costolo says ‘we are still growing quite fast month on month in the UK, Mexico, Spain, Italy, France.’

It seems Twitter – for now at least - has escaped the backlash Facebook has had to endure with regards to advertising on the site. Since the Twitter London office opened last year, more than 140 advertisers have signed up.

Plans for office openings in Latin America, particularly Brazil, are next on the agenda. Activity in Western Europe is also set to increase, with Spain and Germany the first countries to get their hands on the new product.

Many brands have been supportive of the opportunities Twitter has been offering. Absolute Radio said they wouldn’t have had the ‘immediacy at a massive scale’ from a YouTube, MSN or Yahoo! Homepage takeover.

The station gave away £250 every hour for 24 hours to winners tweeting what was playing using the promoted hashtag,  #nowplaying.  And the results – there was a 7% increase of listeners on the day of competition, 76,000 mentions and cost per engagement calculated at 4p.

For now at least, it looks as though Twitter has reason to be chirpy.

By Stephanie Rock

Nancygate

No one enjoys Monday mornings. In my experience they normally involve burnt toast and a prolonged search for clean underwear/ my oyster card. Yet for the Downing Street Press Office, this Monday was exceptionally bad.

Yes, as the World was waking the news was breaking that David Cameron had… left his daughter in a pub. The incident may have happened a few months ago but its negative implications as to our national security, combined with the pure comedy value of the situation, ensured the news spread like wildfire.

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Of course blame was being tossed like a hot potato- I could almost feel a bead of sympathetic PR sweat forming as I imagined the PM’s PR team trying to bat it from his door. We are all familiar with the mantra ‘no publicity is bad publicity’, but I suspect the fallacy of this statement becomes clear when in the midst of crisis management.

So how was this crisis managed?

All in all, I think well, although it did take Downing Street a while to settle on a sequence of events.  An overzealous individual -no doubt with the PM’s best interests at heart- announced that Mr C himself had gone to retrieve Nancy. The subsequent revelation that it was Mrs C who had rushed to her daughters rescue, left Downing Street’s press machinery rather embarrassingly exposed.

Be it the result of luck or manipulation, the UK became divided fairly early on in proceedings. On one side there were those who questioned Cameron’s suitability as PM when he was apparently incapable of baby-sitting. On the other were the sympathetic parents; those who had found themselves in similarly hot water and viewed Cameron’s parental failure as proof of humanity.

The heated debate, which ensued between the two parties, enabled the Camerons to maintain a contrite silence. Apart from a brief statement in which Mr Cameron deflected all responsibility away from his security staff (no-one likes a telltale), they let the pro-child-abandonment team raise every argument in their favour. Their silence and general demeanor gave the impression that they knew they had been wallies but are too busy running the country to become embroiled in domestic quibbles.  This is arguably the best possible outcome when they had been undeniably silly.

Luckily for the Camerons, they also had the support of a man who I suspect knows which side his bread is buttered. Stephen Hollings, Landlord of The Plough at Cadsden, was quick to jump to the PM’s defense. His vocal descriptions of the PM’s dedication as a father and restrained approach to booze, have no doubt ensured life-long patronage from the Cameron clan, along with a steady stream of celeb spectators, eager to spot the PM at his local. 

There was a moment it looked like Downing Street might breath a sigh of relief, but then there was the Leveson inquiry…

By Polly Robinson

Learning to fail

Recently I’ve read a lot about failure, the most interesting being an article about a school set up in the US to teach students how to fail. Ironically it failed to attract any students. However it got me thinking, we live in a world obsessed with success, where failure is a negative term. But how can we so quickly forget that failure is a part of life? To fail is to be human.

If you think back to you when we were children, learning to walk…We didn’t just get up one day and decide today is the day I will walk. No there were the days, weeks, months of trying, falling flat on our faces and bums, wobbly legs and shaky first few steps – but ultimately we succeeded. I think the one big difference between now and then is that we were then brave enough to try, determined to succeed no matter how many times we ‘failed’.

Living in a world obsessed with success makes us scared to fail. However failure can be motivating; if everything were handed to us on a plate, I know I would find it hugely demotivating. What would be the point in doing anything if it was all that easy? I strive for the challenge. Don’t get me wrong, I’m never 100% sure of myself; the first sign of trouble I do get nervous and panic, but at the same time I love the feeling. Will it or won’t it make it into the paper? Will my idea at our brainstorm meetings be met with a roar of laughter? It’s easy to be scared and keep your opinions to yourself and shy away from group discussions. What’s harder is having faith in yourself and being brave enough to speak your mind, and to share your thoughts and ideas. The best example of this is the many lectures I sat through at university where when the lecturer asks a question and the whole hall falls silent. Why? Because no one is brave enough to speak and ultimately fail. But how can you expect to learn, grow and succeed unless you are willing to take a risk?

Failure only makes us stronger; the things to take away are ‘what have I learnt’ and ‘what have I done’. The point of failure is to recover and learn from it. Put the failures behind you and move on from them. No one is perfect the first time around…Henry Ford said, “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time…” So it’s time to stop being scared and learn to embrace failure. As Joseph Chilton Pearce said, “In order to live a creative life we must loose our fear of being wrong”. 

By Pema Seely