News in brief

PR Week UK, Friday, 30 April 2004, 12:00am,

FRANCE: The French prime minister’s principal comms adviser Dominique Ambiel has resigned after he was charged on 20 April for ‘soliciting, accepting or obtaining... sexual relations with a minor who is engaged in prostitution’, according to court officials. The aide to Jean-Pierre Raffarin is to appear before the Tribunal de Paris on 7 June. Ambiel denies the charges.

DEFENCE: Eurofighter maker EADS is on the hunt for its first UK director of comms to manage the company’s profile. Earlier this year, EADS beat rival BAE Systems to secure a £13bn Ministry of Defence order to supply air-to-air refuelling tankers.

TECHNOLOGY PR: EMG Eurocom chief executive Tom Burgess has sold his stake in Eurocom, the European network of 22 tech PR firms he helped to found in April 2002 with Dutch marcoms company EMG. EMG Eurocom has since changed its name to Bond PR.

CONSUMER PR: Lawson Dodd has been appointed by Weight Watchers licensee K&K Salsa to launch a range of salad dressings for the brand. The announcement comes less than two weeks after the diet food company revealed it had taken on Mason Williams to manage its PR.

ENTERTAINMENT PR: Purple has launched an entertainment division, run by former Sony Music director of press Carl Fysh and William Rice. Fysh left Sony in January after seven years (PRWeek, 30 January).

CONSUMER PR: CoalitionTotal.Com-munication has launched a PR drive for Perfect Management, a start-up model management agency.

The agency reports to PM director Charles Putt.

TECHNOLOGY PR: Ecotricity is using Mantra to handle PR around this week’s launch of London’s first wind park, located on the Dagenham Ford estate. Mantra has been briefed to persuade personal finance writers to use stories about environmentally friendly suppliers, such as Ecotricity.