Diary: Guest required no cash for flaunting DVDs for Warner

Peter Noble PR, who were hired by Warner Home Video to promote

digital versatile disks (DVDs) in April, have been trying hard to

attract tabloid publicity for the product.

The agency’s MD Peter Noble had the bright idea of hiring page three

model Jo Guest to help with the October launch of the disks, which show

images as well as sound.

Guest obligingly posed in a dress made of DVDs and, according to Noble,

the only payment she took was a DVD player and a few disks.

Warner also asked Noble to send DVD players to 25 ’influencers’,

including Danny Baker, Chris Evans, musician Goldie and Barry Norman.

All kept the machines and wrote gushing thankyou notes, except for

Norman.

Bruce Thompson, who produces Barry Norman’s Film Night for Sky, sent the

machine back, complaining stroppily that keeping it would be tantamount

to accepting a bribe.

Since then the agency has organised some successful promotions with

tabloids, and last week the Times’ film and video critic Geoff Brown

began covering the disks in his weekly column. But Noble is

unimpressed.

’Its great to have a broad-sheet film reviewer but we’re looking for the

video film reviewers at the Mirror, the Sun and the News of the World to

run DVD columns.’