Mark Borkowski
Encyclopedia
Mark Borkowski is a British PR agent and author with an interest in the history of public relations
and the art of the publicity stunt
. He attended King's Stanley Junior School and St Peters High School in Gloucester
and began working in public relations at nineteen years old. As founder and head of Borkowski PR, he is a well-known lecturer and speaker on the art of publicity. Borkowski has a column in The Guardian
and has written two books on publicity stunts as related to public relations and has won several awards for his work.
, Swindon
promoting touring productions and producing poetry
and rock events. He moved on to the Theatre Royal, Stratford East, in 1981. The first production he promoted was Nell Dunn
's Steaming
, starring Brenda Blethyn
. One of his early publicity stunts there was to “kill off” a tap-dancing dog that he had invented to promote an amateur variety
night. He also produced more music and performance poetry events.
After leaving Stratford East in the mid 1980s, he became a freelance publicist, specialising, uniquely at the time, in theatre and circus, including avant-garde and world theatre and innovative site specific producers, while also working for West End theatre. For The Pirates of Penzance
launch in 1986 at the Palladium
, he organised a sword-fighting workshop for the cast with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
He founded Borkowski PR in 1987. The company works on consumer brands, celebrity and arts and entertainment. They have worked with Michael Jackson
(briefly), Noel Edmonds
, Graham Norton
, Van Morrison
, Carlos Acosta
, Joan Rivers
, Macaulay Culkin
, Sir Cliff Richard, Bolshoi Ballet, Cirque du Soleil
, The Three Tenors
, Eddie Izzard
, Led Zeppelin
, Stomp
, Michael Flatley
, Virgin Megastore
, Horlicks
, American Express
, Oxfam
, Amnesty
, Selfridges
, Vodafone
, Harrods
, Cadbury, Mamma Mia!
and Sony
UK Ltd amongst others.
Borkowski has had a long association with the Edinburgh Festival
; to publicise Archaos, the grunge circus, he organised a series of jumps on motorbikes over traffic queues in the centre of Edinburgh
in 1988 and staged the first UK Cowpat flinging competition to launch Hank Wangford
at the Festival in 1989.
In the 1990s, Borkowski worked for television shows such as The Word
, Never Mind the Buzzcocks
, Our Friends in the North
and Cracker
. Borkowski is now a regular TV and radio pundit on PR, the media
and celebrity
, often attacking the celebrity industry whilst still working within it. He lectures to the industry, to corporate trade associations and at academic institutions. His column, Stuntwatch, appears on The Guardian
Online.
. In 1996 Borkowski ran a “wild, rock’n’roll campaign” for Carlsberg-Tetley
's Thickhead brand of alcopops that resulted in a huge media backlash against alcopops, which were already controversial, and the withdrawal of the product within hours of its launch. The press attention he and his company generated for Archaos in 1990, following tabloid coverage of “nude trapeze artists and men dancing together”, stirred Bristol
Council into banning the circus from appearing on the downs. The Borkowski campaign to promote the performance poet Murray Lachlan Young
also ran into difficulties when the poet, overwhelmed by the media attention, retreated from public life and performance for four years.
' career and helped deal with the press at Edmonds’ recent wedding, which was notable in that the photo rights were deliberately not sold to a celebrity magazines such as Hello!
and OK!
. Borkowski has also acted for celebrities in court, coaching them before they appear – notably in divorce cases for Slavica Ecclestone
and Karen Parlour in her divorce from Ray Parlour
. Cliff Richard
brought in Borkowski to work on the musical Heathcliff
and Borkowski also ran the campaign to get the singer’s "The Millennium Prayer
" to number one on the UK singles chart
, despite minimal radio airplay.
for Hasbro
, gift wrapping a house and helicopter, commissioning the world’s first chocolate billboard
for Thorntons
staging a ballet of remote controlled vacuum cleaners and creating a newspaper column for a cat. (for Bacardi Breezer
) Borkowski was allegedly once expelled from the BBC for letting scorpion
s loose in a Green Room to promote the Jim Rose
Sideshow tour in the UK; he also walked an elephant into a fish and chip shop with The Andrews Sisters
to promote Trivial Pursuit
. In 1988, he helped Ian Botham
recreate Hannibal’s walk across the Alps
, again with elephants. In 2000, he held a World Record Custard Pie Fight, involving 1,000 people, at the Millennium Dome
.
in 2006, citing him for creating “a new branch of theatre – theatre of publicity” and from World's Fair
, the circus industry's trade paper, for services to the circus in 2001. His company won the Gold Award from PR Week
for Campaign of the Year in 2008 for their Wispa
social networking campaign to relaunch the chocolate bar.
, focusing in particular on the art of the publicity stunt. Improperganda was published in 2001. The Fame Formula started life as Sons of Barnum (a show by Borkowski at the Edinburgh Festival in 2004) and was subtitled: How Hollywood's fixers, fakers and star makers shaped the publicity industry. It sparked controversy when The Times
suggested that one of the fakers and star makers in question, Maynard Nottage, was himself a fake, i.e. that he never existed. Borkowksi, according to the paper, may himself have been the victim of an elaborate hoax. Borkowski confirmed his belief in Nottage's existence and wrote that "Nottage’s rough collection of papers, the majority of which were written in hindsight in the 1940s and 50s, were handed to me after lengthy negotiation with his cautious family, just prior to writing The Fame Formula, at the beginning of 2007."
The Fame Formula received mixed reviews; the Guardian said that the Fame Formula “is a terrific, witty romp through the - often dirty - undies of the Hollywood fame factory and draws some interesting conclusions about modern-day celebrity culture” but a harsh critique from The Scotsman
s book club led Borkowski to respond with a gift-wrapped pig's anus for each of the reviewers, a stunt borrowed from one of the publicists in the book, Jim Moran
.
Public relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
and the art of the publicity stunt
Publicity stunt
A publicity stunt is a planned event designed to attract the public's attention to the event's organizers or their cause. Publicity stunts can be professionally organized or set up by amateurs...
. He attended King's Stanley Junior School and St Peters High School in Gloucester
Gloucester
Gloucester is a city, district and county town of Gloucestershire in the South West region of England. Gloucester lies close to the Welsh border, and on the River Severn, approximately north-east of Bristol, and south-southwest of Birmingham....
and began working in public relations at nineteen years old. As founder and head of Borkowski PR, he is a well-known lecturer and speaker on the art of publicity. Borkowski has a column in The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
and has written two books on publicity stunts as related to public relations and has won several awards for his work.
Career
Borkowski’s first job was as the in-house publicist at the Wyvern TheatreWyvern Theatre
The Wyvern Theatre in Swindon, Wiltshire is named after the mythical wyvern which was once the emblem of the Kings of Wessex. It was opened on 7 September 1971 by Her Majesty the Queen and His Royal Highness Prince Philip....
, Swindon
Swindon
Swindon is a large town within the borough of Swindon and ceremonial county of Wiltshire, in South West England. It is midway between Bristol, west and Reading, east. London is east...
promoting touring productions and producing poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
and rock events. He moved on to the Theatre Royal, Stratford East, in 1981. The first production he promoted was Nell Dunn
Nell Dunn
-Early years:Dunn was born in London and educated at a convent, which she left at the age of fourteen. Although she came from an upper class background, in 1959 she moved to Battersea and made friends in the neighbourhood and worked for a time in a sweets factory...
's Steaming
Steaming (play)
Steaming is a 1981 play written by English playwright Nell Dunn first staged at Theatre Royal, Stratford, in London. It won the 1981 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Comedy ....
, starring Brenda Blethyn
Brenda Blethyn
Brenda Anne Blethyn, OBE is an English actress who has worked in theatre, television and film. Blethyn has received two Academy Award nominations, two SAG Award nominations, two Emmy Award nominations and three Golden Globe Award nominations, winning one...
. One of his early publicity stunts there was to “kill off” a tap-dancing dog that he had invented to promote an amateur variety
Variety show
A variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is an entertainment made up of a variety of acts, especially musical performances and sketch comedy, and normally introduced by a compère or host. Other types of acts include magic, animal and circus acts, acrobatics, juggling...
night. He also produced more music and performance poetry events.
After leaving Stratford East in the mid 1980s, he became a freelance publicist, specialising, uniquely at the time, in theatre and circus, including avant-garde and world theatre and innovative site specific producers, while also working for West End theatre. For The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance; or, The Slave of Duty is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. The opera's official premiere was at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City on 31 December 1879, where the show was well received by both audiences...
launch in 1986 at the Palladium
Palladium
Palladium is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Pd and an atomic number of 46. It is a rare and lustrous silvery-white metal discovered in 1803 by William Hyde Wollaston. He named it after the asteroid Pallas, which was itself named after the epithet of the Greek goddess Athena, acquired...
, he organised a sword-fighting workshop for the cast with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
He founded Borkowski PR in 1987. The company works on consumer brands, celebrity and arts and entertainment. They have worked with Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
(briefly), Noel Edmonds
Noel Edmonds
Noel Ernest Edmonds, is an English broadcaster and executive, who made his name as a DJ on BBC Radio 1 in the UK. He has presented many light entertainment television programmes, including Multi-Coloured Swap Shop, Top of the Pops, The Late, Late Breakfast Show, Telly Addicts, Noel's Saturday...
, Graham Norton
Graham Norton
Graham William Walker, known by his stage name Graham Norton , is an Irish actor, comedian, television presenter and columnist...
, Van Morrison
Van Morrison
Van Morrison, OBE is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are regarded as transcendental and inspired; while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are widely...
, Carlos Acosta
Carlos Acosta
Carlos Acosta is a Cuban ballet dancer. He has danced with many companies including the English National Ballet, National Ballet of Cuba, Houston Ballet and American Ballet Theatre...
, Joan Rivers
Joan Rivers
Joan Rivers is an American comedian, television personality and actress. She is known for her brash manner; her loud, raspy voice with a heavy New York accent; and her numerous cosmetic surgeries...
, Macaulay Culkin
Macaulay Culkin
Macaulay Carson Culkin is an American actor. He became widely known for his portrayal of Kevin McCallister in Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. He is also known for his roles in Richie Rich, Uncle Buck, My Girl, The Pagemaster, and Party Monster...
, Sir Cliff Richard, Bolshoi Ballet, Cirque du Soleil
Cirque du Soleil
Cirque du Soleil , is a Canadian entertainment company, self-described as a "dramatic mix of circus arts and street entertainment." Based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul in 1984 by two former street performers, Guy...
, The Three Tenors
The Three Tenors
The Three Tenors is a name given to the Spanish singers Plácido Domingo and José Carreras and the Italian singer Luciano Pavarotti who sang in concert under this banner during the 1990s and early 2000s. The trio began their collaboration with a performance at the ancient Baths of Caracalla, in...
, Eddie Izzard
Eddie Izzard
Edward John "Eddie" Izzard is a British stand-up comedian and actor. His comedy style takes the form of rambling, whimsical monologue and self-referential pantomime...
, Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
, Stomp
Stomp (dance troupe)
Stomp is a percussion group that uses the body and ordinary objects to create a physical theatre performance.-History and performances:...
, Michael Flatley
Michael Flatley
Michael Ryan Flatley is an American Irish dancer, choreographer, actor, musician and occasional television presenter. He became internationally known for Irish dance shows Riverdance, Lord of the Dance, Feet of Flames, and Celtic Tiger...
, Virgin Megastore
Virgin Megastore
Virgin Megastores is an international chain of record shops, founded by Sir Richard Branson on London's Oxford Street in early 1971. Virgin Megastores are best described today as entertainment retailers....
, Horlicks
Horlicks
Horlicks is the name of a company and of a malted milk hot drink. It is manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline in the United Kingdom, South Africa, New Zealand, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Jamaica, and under licence in the Philippines and Malaysia....
, American Express
American Express
American Express Company or AmEx, is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Three World Financial Center, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. Founded in 1850, it is one of the 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is best...
, Oxfam
Oxfam
Oxfam is an international confederation of 15 organizations working in 98 countries worldwide to find lasting solutions to poverty and related injustice around the world. In all Oxfam’s actions, the ultimate goal is to enable people to exercise their rights and manage their own lives...
, Amnesty
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
, Selfridges
Selfridges
Selfridges, AKA Selfridges & Co, is a chain of high end department stores in the United Kingdom. It was founded by Harry Gordon Selfridge. The flagship store in London's Oxford Street is the second largest shop in the UK and was opened on 15 March 1909.More recently, three other stores have been...
, Vodafone
Vodafone
Vodafone Group Plc is a global telecommunications company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's largest mobile telecommunications company measured by revenues and the world's second-largest measured by subscribers , with around 341 million proportionate subscribers as of...
, Harrods
Harrods
Harrods is an upmarket department store located in Brompton Road in Brompton, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London. The Harrods brand also applies to other enterprises undertaken by the Harrods group of companies including Harrods Bank, Harrods Estates, Harrods Aviation and Air...
, Cadbury, Mamma Mia!
Mamma Mia!
Mamma Mia! is a stage musical written by British playwright Catherine Johnson, based on the songs of ABBA, composed by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, former members of the band. Although the title of the musical is taken from the group's 1975 chart-topper "Mamma Mia", the plot is fictional, not...
and Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
UK Ltd amongst others.
Borkowski has had a long association with the Edinburgh Festival
Edinburgh Festival
The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August...
; to publicise Archaos, the grunge circus, he organised a series of jumps on motorbikes over traffic queues in the centre of Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
in 1988 and staged the first UK Cowpat flinging competition to launch Hank Wangford
Hank Wangford
Hank Wangford is a distinguished English country and western songwriter. Hank Wangford is the stage name of Dr. Samuel Hutt, . His music is notable for its humour and cheerful irony, and occasional excursions into biting political undercurrent....
at the Festival in 1989.
In the 1990s, Borkowski worked for television shows such as The Word
The Word (TV series)
The Word was a 1990s Channel 4 television programme in the United Kingdom.-Format:Its presenters included Mancunian radio presenter Terry Christian, comedian Mark Lamarr, Dani Behr, Katie Puckrik, Jasmine Dotiwala, Alan Connor, Amanda de Cadenet and "Huffty"...
, Never Mind the Buzzcocks
Never Mind the Buzzcocks
Never Mind the Buzzcocks is a comedy panel game television show with a pop music theme, currently without a permanent presenter. It stars Phill Jupitus and Noel Fielding as team captains. The show is produced by Talkback Thames for the BBC, and is usually aired on BBC Two...
, Our Friends in the North
Our Friends in the North
Our Friends in the North is a British television drama serial, produced by the BBC and originally broadcast in nine episodes on BBC Two in early 1996...
and Cracker
Cracker (UK TV series)
Cracker is a British crime drama series produced by Granada Television for ITV and created and principally written by Jimmy McGovern. The series is centered on a criminal psychologist , Eddie "Fitz" Fitzgerald, played by Robbie Coltrane. Set in Manchester, it consists of three series which were...
. Borkowski is now a regular TV and radio pundit on PR, the media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
and celebrity
Celebrity
A celebrity, also referred to as a celeb in popular culture, is a person who has a prominent profile and commands a great degree of public fascination and influence in day-to-day media...
, often attacking the celebrity industry whilst still working within it. He lectures to the industry, to corporate trade associations and at academic institutions. His column, Stuntwatch, appears on The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
Online.
Controversy
In 1994 Borkowski created a cause celebre and front page outrage when he publicised the London production of the controversial religious rock musical Bad Boy Johnny and the Prophets of DoomBad Boy Johnny and the Prophets of Doom
Bad Boy Johnny and the Prophets of Doom is a controversial stage musical first performed in Australia in 1989, written by Daniel Abineri and is a satire on religion and rock and roll.-History:...
. In 1996 Borkowski ran a “wild, rock’n’roll campaign” for Carlsberg-Tetley
Tetley
Tetley, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Global Beverages , is the world's second largest manufacturer and distributor of tea. Owned by India's Tata Group, Tetley's manufacturing and distribution business is spread across 40 countries and sells over 60 branded tea bags...
's Thickhead brand of alcopops that resulted in a huge media backlash against alcopops, which were already controversial, and the withdrawal of the product within hours of its launch. The press attention he and his company generated for Archaos in 1990, following tabloid coverage of “nude trapeze artists and men dancing together”, stirred Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
Council into banning the circus from appearing on the downs. The Borkowski campaign to promote the performance poet Murray Lachlan Young
Murray Lachlan Young
Murray Lachlan Young is a British performance poet whose humorous work enjoyed a spectacular but brief vogue during the mid-1990s. He was the first poet to be given a £1 million record deal, when he signed to EMI amid a blaze of publicity in 1996. He released one album, Vice And Verse.Young was...
also ran into difficulties when the poet, overwhelmed by the media attention, retreated from public life and performance for four years.
Celebrity
Borkowski is responsible for helping to revive Noel EdmondsNoel Edmonds
Noel Ernest Edmonds, is an English broadcaster and executive, who made his name as a DJ on BBC Radio 1 in the UK. He has presented many light entertainment television programmes, including Multi-Coloured Swap Shop, Top of the Pops, The Late, Late Breakfast Show, Telly Addicts, Noel's Saturday...
' career and helped deal with the press at Edmonds’ recent wedding, which was notable in that the photo rights were deliberately not sold to a celebrity magazines such as Hello!
Hello!
Hello is a weekly magazine specializing in celebrity news and human-interest stories, published in the United Kingdom since 1988. Hello is sister magazine to ¡Hola!, the Spanish weekly magazine launched in Spain in 1944...
and OK!
OK!
OK! is a British weekly magazine specializing in celebrity news. Originally launched as a monthly, its first issue was published in April 1993. In September 2004, OK! publishers Northern and Shell launched in Australia as a monthly title – the magazine went weekly in October 2006...
. Borkowski has also acted for celebrities in court, coaching them before they appear – notably in divorce cases for Slavica Ecclestone
Slavica Ecclestone
Slavica Ecclestone is a former model and ex-wife of Formula One racing CEO Bernie Ecclestone.- Biography :She was born in 1958 in Rijeka, Croatia...
and Karen Parlour in her divorce from Ray Parlour
Ray Parlour
Raymond "Ray" Parlour , is a retired English footballer. He spent his career playing for Arsenal, Middlesbrough and Hull City. During his Arsenal career he was nicknamed "The Romford Pelé"; although the nickname was given with an ironic sense of humour, on account of his solid performance but...
. Cliff Richard
Cliff Richard
Sir Cliff Richard, OBE is a British pop singer, musician, performer, actor, and philanthropist who has sold over an estimated 250 million records worldwide....
brought in Borkowski to work on the musical Heathcliff
Heathcliff (musical)
Heathcliff was the brainchild of singer Cliff Richard based loosely on the novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, though focussing on the character of Heathcliff and adapting the story to fit in with the staging and production...
and Borkowski also ran the campaign to get the singer’s "The Millennium Prayer
The Millennium Prayer
"The Millennium Prayer" is a 1999 charity single by Cliff Richard. The song features Richard singing the words of the Lord's Prayer to the tune of "Auld Lang Syne". It was not written to be entered into the charts, instead being written to form part of the Share Jesus International production,...
" to number one on the UK singles chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
, despite minimal radio airplay.
Publicity stunts
Borkowski has written two books on the subject of publicity stunts. His own stunts include planting a field full of Cabbage Patch KidsCabbage Patch Kids
Cabbage Patch Kids is a line of dolls created by American art student Xavier Roberts in 1978. It was originally called "Little People". The original dolls were all cloth and sold at local craft shows, then later at Babyland General Hospital in Cleveland, Georgia...
for Hasbro
Hasbro
Hasbro is a multinational toy and boardgame company from the United States of America. It is one of the largest toy makers in the world. The corporate headquarters is located in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, United States...
, gift wrapping a house and helicopter, commissioning the world’s first chocolate billboard
Billboard
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
for Thorntons
Thorntons
Thorntons is a UK chocolate company established by Joseph William Thornton in 1911. Thorntons today is a £180 million turnover company with nearly 400 shops and cafes and around 200 franchises together with internet, mail order and commercial services...
staging a ballet of remote controlled vacuum cleaners and creating a newspaper column for a cat. (for Bacardi Breezer
Bacardi Breezer
Bacardi Breezer, Breezer for short, is a rum-based alcopop with 4% alcohol It comes in a variety of fruit flavours: lemon, peach, pineapple, apple, ruby grapefruit, lime, orange, blackberry, watermelon, cranberry, coconut, raspberry, blueberry, pomegranate and mango...
) Borkowski was allegedly once expelled from the BBC for letting scorpion
Scorpion
Scorpions are predatory arthropod animals of the order Scorpiones within the class Arachnida. They have eight legs and are easily recognized by the pair of grasping claws and the narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward curve over the back, ending with a venomous stinger...
s loose in a Green Room to promote the Jim Rose
Jim Rose Circus
The Jim Rose Circus is a modern-day version of a circus sideshow. It was founded in Seattle by Jim Rose in the early 1990s. The sideshow came to prominence as a second stage show at the 1992 Lollapalooza festival, then called the Jim Rose Circus Sideshow...
Sideshow tour in the UK; he also walked an elephant into a fish and chip shop with The Andrews Sisters
The Andrews Sisters
The Andrews Sisters were a highly successful close harmony singing group of the swing and boogie-woogie eras. The group consisted of three sisters: contralto LaVerne Sophia Andrews , soprano Maxene Angelyn Andrews , and mezzo-soprano Patricia Marie "Patty" Andrews...
to promote Trivial Pursuit
Trivial Pursuit
Trivial Pursuit is a board game in which progress is determined by a player's ability to answer general knowledge and popular culture questions. The game was created in 1979 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, by Canadian Chris Haney, a photo editor for Montreal's The Gazette and Scott Abbott, a sports...
. In 1988, he helped Ian Botham
Ian Botham
Sir Ian Terence Botham OBE is a former England Test cricketer and Test team captain, and current cricket commentator. He was a genuine all-rounder with 14 centuries and 383 wickets in Test cricket, and remains well-known by his nickname "Beefy"...
recreate Hannibal’s walk across the Alps
Alps
The Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....
, again with elephants. In 2000, he held a World Record Custard Pie Fight, involving 1,000 people, at the Millennium Dome
Millennium Dome
The Millennium Dome, colloquially referred to simply as The Dome or even The O2 Arena, is the original name of a large dome-shaped building, originally used to house the Millennium Experience, a major exhibition celebrating the beginning of the third millennium...
.
Awards
Borkowski received an Outstanding Achievement award from Fringe ReportFringe Report
Fringe Report is an online magazine relating to contemporary fringe theatre published in the United Kingdom. Fringe Report publishes 2 or 3 times a week on London performances as well as regional performances in the United Kingdom. Fringe Report dates from 2002....
in 2006, citing him for creating “a new branch of theatre – theatre of publicity” and from World's Fair
World's Fair
World's fair, World fair, Universal Exposition, and World Expo are various large public exhibitions held in different parts of the world. The first Expo was held in The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London, United Kingdom, in 1851, under the title "Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All...
, the circus industry's trade paper, for services to the circus in 2001. His company won the Gold Award from PR Week
PR Week
PRWeek is a weekly trade magazine for the public relations industry.PRWeek also produces research into the size and shape of the UK public relations industry including the annual ranking of Top 150 PR consultancies and Salary Survey as well as surveys into industry-relevant issues such as staff...
for Campaign of the Year in 2008 for their Wispa
Wispa
Wispa is a brand of chocolate bar currently manufactured by Cadbury UK. The bar was launched in 1981 as a trial version in North East England and with its success it was introduced nationally in 1983...
social networking campaign to relaunch the chocolate bar.
Books
Borkowski has written two histories of public relationsPublic relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
, focusing in particular on the art of the publicity stunt. Improperganda was published in 2001. The Fame Formula started life as Sons of Barnum (a show by Borkowski at the Edinburgh Festival in 2004) and was subtitled: How Hollywood's fixers, fakers and star makers shaped the publicity industry. It sparked controversy when The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
suggested that one of the fakers and star makers in question, Maynard Nottage, was himself a fake, i.e. that he never existed. Borkowksi, according to the paper, may himself have been the victim of an elaborate hoax. Borkowski confirmed his belief in Nottage's existence and wrote that "Nottage’s rough collection of papers, the majority of which were written in hindsight in the 1940s and 50s, were handed to me after lengthy negotiation with his cautious family, just prior to writing The Fame Formula, at the beginning of 2007."
The Fame Formula received mixed reviews; the Guardian said that the Fame Formula “is a terrific, witty romp through the - often dirty - undies of the Hollywood fame factory and draws some interesting conclusions about modern-day celebrity culture” but a harsh critique from The Scotsman
The Scotsman
The Scotsman is a British newspaper, published in Edinburgh.As of August 2011 it had an audited circulation of 38,423, down from about 100,000 in the 1980s....
s book club led Borkowski to respond with a gift-wrapped pig's anus for each of the reviewers, a stunt borrowed from one of the publicists in the book, Jim Moran
Jim Moran (publicist)
James Sterling Moran was an imaginative publicist who was active as a press agent for various clients in a career that spanned five decades, from the 1930s to the 1980s...
.
External links
- Mark My Words Mark Borkowski blogs
- A Life in the Day of Mark Borkowski The TimesThe TimesThe Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...