PR came under the spotlight as the media dissected the three-week
affair of Geri Halliwell and Chris Evans.
The former Spice Girl saw a big ratings rise, with four front pages in
The Sun (including three bonus points for being photographed drunk and
incapable as all good pop stars should) and a number one single. It
remains to be seen if Evans’ participation can stop Virgin Radio
haemorrhaging listeners.
Before you could say Wannabe, the Sun had splashed the affair, along
with the Mirror and the Daily Mail. As the Mail’s Geoffrey Levy pointed
out (10/11/99): ’One phone call is a scoop, two a coup, but three just
had to be hype.’
Among Geri’s ’friends’, PR guru Matthew Freud worried that the hype had
’gone too far’. Others helped by the ’hardest fought chart PR battle in
years’ (Mirror, 8/11/99) included Frank Dobson’s mayoral campaign and
the MTV music awards. Freud was also depicted as ready to move on from
PR to become a business leader (Independent on Sunday, 14/11).
Analysis and commentary by Echo Research. Cuttings supplied by the
Broadcast Monitoring Company. More information can be found at
www.echoResearch.com.
