Flack: What's been happening this week

PR Week UK, Friday, 04 December 2009, 12:00am,

At PRWeek's Crises in a Wired World conference last week, laconic BBC chief comms adviser Donald Steel bemoaned the deluge of FOI requests with which he has to deal, including a demand to hand over details of all staff complaints about the BBC canteen.

But the strangest request asked how many toilets there were at the TV centre, the annual number of toilet rolls bought, and whether any - ahem - 'accidents' had taken place there. Steel relayed his sarcastically formal response, ending with the killer line: 'I'm glad to clean up that issue' ...

Also on the Beeb theme, Porter Novelli MD Jean Wyllie went into climb-down mode this week after her agency won an award for a campaign involving a BBC-branded metal container. The agency claimed it had pitched the idea to the BBC. This appears to have ruffled feathers as Wyllie subsequently posted a retraction on the Novelli blog. 'It was the BBC that approached Porter Novelli,' admitted Wyllie, who may now be counting down the days to her imminent departure ...

Flack was invited to uber-trendy furniture purveyor Dwell's Spring 2010 launch on 25 November, thrown by Marmalade PR at private club The Hospital. Those present included Sadie Frost, Jemima French, Jaime Winstone and Meg Matthews. Then there was TV presenter Nick Grimshaw, who, we're told, rushed out to buy some furniture the next day. A satisfied customer then ...