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Posts Tagged ‘Channel 4’

THE ‘REAL’ FACTOR

Friday, March 5th, 2010

‘I Had A Sex-change Without Telling My Wife’, ‘I Breast Feed My Cat’, ‘I Ran Over My Fiancé’, just some of the extraordinary stories from very ordinary people told in Channel 4’s latest ‘Cutting Edge’ installment – ‘My Daughter Grew Another Head And Other True Life Stories’.

Intrigued to see the actual people behind these quite ridiculous headlines, I switched on last night, expecting to watch a bunch of money hungry ‘odd-balls’ but instead found myself empathising with a host of working class folk who just wanted people to hear their story. Many wanted to reveal the truth behind gossip whilst others wanted to help those in similar situations.

In contrast, the journalists interviewed fully lived up to the ‘real-life’ media stereotypes, hungry for drama, eager to find tragedy and humiliation with stories shocking enough to make the front cover and secure those big bucks, thick skinned to say the least. One ex true-life journalist actually admitted to leaving the industry when her conscience caught up with her.

Stalking the streets of the UK for ‘womb tremblers’ or stories of ‘trial and tragedy’ these reporters were there to ‘re-create’ tales to fascinate and intrigue, often with a complete ignorance for the case studies’ feelings. One of the more emotional moments was when Rachel (I Had A Sex Change Without Telling My Wife) read the interpretation of her story in Full House. Desperate to show the complexities of her journey to become a woman, she was devastated with how her tale was twisted into a freak feature.

The documentary didn’t dispel my thoughts on how sometimes the vulnerable and often gullible were taken advantage of to make a good story but did demonstrate how the growing culture of ‘reality’ stars was just as big in print as it is on TV. And with a thriving industry of nine million readers a week, websites for people to upload their own ‘true life’ stories to and publicists for normal people with interesting stories, the phenomenon appears set to get bigger.

Would I sell my story if something bizarre happened to me? God no. Will I continue to read these tales of horror and tragedy with the same fascination? Of course. I might not necessarily believe everything written down but I’m paying for the magazine to be entertained at the end of the day.

By Heather Kenny, Brazen Account Executive

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OLD BANGERS AND BANGING TUNES CREATE THE PERFECT MARKETING MIX FOR HYUNDAI’S CONSUMER PR

Friday, August 7th, 2009
So you need an event with the wow factor?

Well ‘events’ these days are more than just organising an awards ceremony or doing some on-street sampling. Which are still really important and play their parts I have to say - but what about bringing brands to life in the digital world? Well we think that’s worthy of an ‘event’ too - albeit virtually.

At Brazen Productions we produce both traditional and digital events, creating engaging content on and offline, as well as building sets, producing music videos and much much more.

So I’d like to tell you more about what we produced for Brazen client, Hyundai, with a cutting edge piece of online engagement that is far more than ‘an event’.

In a time of media doom and gloom, especially in the retail and car industries it is really encouraging to be hearing such positive things from a client who is really motoring through at the moment.

With tweets about Sierras, Maestros and various other old classics (or bangers depending on your take) I have to say for a while I wondered if the stress of the credit crunch has finally got too much and Tom Barnard at Hyundai had forgotten where he was working!  But no it turned out that he and his team in the press office had actually acquired a very interesting new fleet of press cars to help them raise awareness of the government’s new scrappage scheme.

From the very second the opportunity to get £2,000 off the cost of a new car was launched the Hyundai PR team were working hard to offer the great motoring public some of the best deals on the market, and even sell some cars with it.

And that they have done…today revealing that the i10, the perfect scrappage scheme model, has made it into the top ten of the UK car sales chart, a first for the manufacturer.  The Korean company’s i10 has been such as massive hit with British buyers that over 3084 have found good homes in the last month alone.  The car is actually number one for Brits taking advantage of the scheme.  Hardly surprising when they bagged themselves a good ten minutes of branding on the Channel 4 news last night!

I am working with Tom on a very different consumer PR project called 30beats.  We teamed up with the award-winning ’search geeks’ at Manchester agency PushON to build a bespoke website where car fans can make beautiful music with the car brand of the moment.

The website offers a nifty scroll bar of downloadable car sounds from the obvious horn to the rather exciting whoosh of the boot hydraulics - definitely my favourite of the sounds we recorded in our day at the Pie Factory in Salford’s Media City.  The challenge of the site is to make your own track using this varied range of sounds and mix to a video of your making…It a creative challenge sure to offer some varied responses.  We cannot wait to hear the entries as they come in.

For an idea of things to come check out our very own pop video shot with Manchester favourite, Krysko, before he began his gruelling schedule at this year’s award-winning club night the Warehouse Project.  Maybe we will even see clubbers raving to his mechanic mash-up in disused carpark late on a Saturday night soon?  Stranger things have caught on - glow sticks and pipe cleaners for example…

For more information about what Brazen Productions can do for you and your brand visit our world.

By Daisy Whitehouse, Head of Brazen Productions

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WOMEN…GET BACK IN THE KITCHEN!

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009

No, I’ve not turned into a bigot but last week I had the pleasure of meeting Gizzi Erskine who we’ve just signed for yet another big Brazen consumer PR campaign.

Gizzi describes herself as a food writer, stylist, television presenter and not to forget a damn good chef. Best known for being one of the presenters on Channel 4’s Cook Yourself Thin…I can only really illustrate Gizzi as an English rose within the celebrity chef circles.

Youthful elegance mixed with extracts of coolness and confidence all topped off with sprinkles of kitsch-punk and drop-dead gorgeous looks…this is the perfect recipe for one lady rising faster than a loaf of bread!

But don’t be fooled that Gizzi is just ‘another celeb chef’ for she is determined to break the culinary boundaries of pomposity and pretension within what she sees as an aging and male dominated industry.

And she has a point. The loudmouths of the world often claim that ‘the woman’s place is in the kitchen’. And I suppose these stereotypes have been generated from yesteryear’s domestic goddesses.

So after all those years of being ‘chained to the oven’, why is it that post-women’s empowerment, the UK’s most famous chefs are all mainly men? Gordon, Jamie, Heston, Hugh, Ainsley, etc, etc….the list goes on.

Ok, you can argue that the likes of Delia and Nigella are on par in terms of fame, fortune and culinary skills but where does the future lie? With today’s media advancements, Gizzi is set about revolutionising the virtual-kitchen and promoting cookery to the Myspace Generation and Digital Inhabitants.

This is where Gizzi comes into her own, she’s a breath of fresh air within a stale and smokey kitchen. Two things are for sure. The first being this girl is destined for big things and the second…I can’t wait to taste her food!

By Graeme Anthony, Account Manager

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In Bed With Sasha…

Wednesday, March 4th, 2009

This week I’ve found it very hard to get out of bed. No, I’m not hung over and definitely not depressed. I’m actually feeling pretty good after widespread coverage for my Silentnight news story about Brits’ Bad Bed Habits ( Daily Mail, Daily Express and Channel 4 online).

We’d originally planned to do a story about how sleeping together before marriage can save relationships but it turns out that’s not true – damn opinion polls! The research indicated that Brits are so badly behaved in bed that some relationships are doomed to fail and unfortunately (or fortunately if you think of the subsequent success) for us that meant we had to change the angle of the story. And fast.

OK so this story might have been done before but put a new spin on it and look what happens! Playing regions off against each other has secured us mass regional coverage and pinpointing which celebrities might suffer from various bad bed habits was a surefire way to get noticed in the nationals.

Did you know 20 something Geordie lasses like Cheryl Cole are Britain’s biggest sleep walkers? Let’s just hope she’s an exception to the rule. Wouldn’t want her sleep walking off the top of Mount Kilamanjaro… Now there’s a headline!

Thankfully for my partner, he’s very well-behaved in bed (I don’t take well to being bashed in my sleep.) But are His & Hers bedrooms really the future of successful relationships?

By Sasha Blake, Account Director

Sleep

Sleepy Time

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