The Buffalo Blog

Is chocolate really good for you?

Researchers in the United States have today found that human guinea pigs who broke the rules of a study on blood clots by eating dark chocolate increased their protection against heart attacks. Chocolate is therefore good for you. As is beer, according to another piece of research - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/727912.stm.

Let us be honest with ourselves here. A man or woman who gorges on chocolate and beer is not going to be a healthy individual and a balanced diet and exercise and the key to maintaining good health, and an occasional treat (in moderation) will not do a great deal of harm.

So how and why do these stories appear from time to time? Journalists have more and more pages to fill and not always a huge amount to write about. But this phenomena can’t be solely attributed to space-filling. The reality is that a lot of people stand to make a lot of money from this type of research. This blog is not going to act as a conspiracy theorist, but is it beyond the realms of the imagination to suggest that leading chocolate brands could have had some say into these research results?

There is no doubt that these stories represent highly positive communications for the chocolate and alcohol industries. Additionally, if this type of story gets people talking, even better.  So whilst this is a good piece of communications, there remains serious questions as to both the motive behind this story, and the effects that it will have on people. Does our obese society really need to be told how chocolate is good for you?!

Mourinho - the best press manager around

After facing recent criticism from the Uefa president for behaving like a "kid who didn't get a toy he had been promised", Jose Mourinho yesterday played up to the description by blaming referee Graham Poll for two key decisions which helped condemn Chelsea to defeat yesterday. Mourinho seems totally unfazed by the barrage of negative publicity that he receives on a regular basis. Instead of trying to woo other members of football’s establishment, and the accompanying press, Mourinho apparently seems happy to create the situation whereby a universal dislike of him couterbalances the seemingly unending stream of success that his team achieves.

Does Mourinho do this on purpose? By creating a siege mentality based on the fact that ‘no-one likes us’, Chelsea’s players seem like a cohesive unit and play as such. The siege mentality at the club is a definite factor behind the success, although Abramovich’s untold millions are also an important factor! In my opinion, Mourinho’s astute management of the press plays a part in Chelsea’s success, although it is not the way to win a popularity contest. 

A fiasco presents an opportunity

Eamonn Holmes’ interactive spelling game. The perfect Christmas present? I think not. The DVD had a nightmare start to its shelf-life by producing a cover spelling Mr. Holmes’ name wrong. As a communications faux pas, this has to rank amongst the worst, and the irony was not lost on anyone.

So the question is whether the mantra holds true that any publicity is good publicity? Obviously we would never advise clients to go out and generate negative publicity, but it does seem that Eamonn Holmes’ game would never have gained any kind of recognition (or sales) without this adverse publicity. Whether anyone is willing to buy it now is questionable.

Ideally the comms team behind the launch would have loved to have kept this story under wraps, but once it got out into the public domain they were presented with a difficult situation. The fact that they let Eamonn’s reaction get leaked to the press was the worst possible situation. If they had seen the disaster as an opportunity, and had they turned the PR into a challenge such as the following, the negative effect could have been reversed: ‘You find one spelling mistake on the actual DVD and get your money back…’. This was an opportunity lost, and the makers have been left red-faced.