Is Douglas "New Zealand is a great place, I'd just rather be somewhere else" Myers set to quit the land of the long white cloud and Labour Government forever? He has always denied it, but evidence of flight has become overwhelming, what with the Remmers pad on the market and the Tahitian island paradise sold. But why would ole steely blue eyes give up such southern hemisphere splendour for the London suburb of Chelsea, home to football players, film stars and advertising executives. At his age? It's the reverse path of many UK high-flyers who, understandably, flee the pressures of London for the tropics or antipodes when they near retirement. But then Myers has always been something of a contrarian.
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PR is a tricky bag - made trickier when you work for an agency known for taking the stickiest jobs in town. First, Consultus is dragged into the Savoy Equities/Jihong Lu debacle; now it's been hired to defend British nuclear ships taking a "long cut" through the Southern Hemisphere to dump toxic waste in Japan. Several questions spring to mind: why does the toxic ship need public relations when the NZ public cannot stop its visit, and will not be consumers of nuclear power, and cannot hold the companies accountable in the event of an accident? It's rather like being asked to carry out "perception management" for Cyclone Bola or the mudslides of central America.
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We know that Ian Waddell, the once vociferous opponent of the Kiwi/Aussie Stock Exchange merger, has been asked to pull his head in by divisional director James Ogden at Macquarie New Zealand. Public relations firm Busby Ramshaw Grice was once involved, but no longer. And that deafening sound of silence you hear is the sound of brokers not rushing to speak on behalf of "brokers against the merger." Members of the group were "taken into a room and told their options," one source says. PR people have been circling, eager to manage the perception of firms with the formerly opinionated employees. Maybe it was too much to expect that free speech would extend to the broking community.
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Spin doctoring is the theme of the week. No more stunning example exists than the "court decision a win for readers" press release posted on publishing company IDG's website. As you may recall, IDG's new publication, Net Magazine, ran into trouble because of its similarity to the widely popular NetGuide from Industrial Press. NetGuide won an interim injunction against Net Magazine, claiming it was too similar and should change its name to avoid causing confusion among cyber-geeks. Those at NetGuide say the stoush may yet return to court. May the elfin antics long continue.
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