Archive
Year: 2008
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Over an Indian takeaway a new digital dawn
October 24, 2008
Sometimes even Brussels public affairs consultants let their hair down and forget about comitology, co-decision and Commission communications. After a hectic but hugely successful autumn, our weekly staff meeting today saw the unveiling of our latest digital project over some fine Indian food from a local Brussels takeaway. (Apologies if you were in line at the same place as our rather large order was bagged up and delivered.) Wii has arrived in our office. You...
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Annoyed Icelanders attack Gordon Brown via the Internet
October 24, 2008
Image by Getty Images via Daylife A group of Icelanders have got together and made a website www.indefence.is that criticises British PM Gordon Brown for having used (or abused...) anti-terror legislation to freeze Icelandic assets. The website's key message is the simple and not entirely unreasonable "Icelanders are not terrorists". The title tag of the website is "Darling I'm not a terrorist", which is a dig at British Chancellor of the Exchequer (Finance Minister) Alistair...
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Force of the Credit Crisis Drives EU Forward
October 20, 2008
There are tentative signs that the dust is beginning to settle after the last few hyperactive weeks, with signs that world leaders have mounted an effective response to the credit crisis. Inter-bank lending seems to be recovering, stock markets appear more stable and the outline of a global approach is beginning to show, following three weeks of frantic decision-making at national, European and at global levels. As so often happens, it is the force of...
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50/50: Going Digital for Gender Equality
October 14, 2008
When we started this blog, we sometimes had the impression that we had to actively look for examples of the use of digital tools for political campaigns. A year and a bit later, things have changed significantly (fortunately!) The “50/50 Campaign for Democracy” is one of the most recent cases we have happily stumbled upon. The main goal? Ensuring a 50/50 women-to-men representation in the 2009 European Parliament elections as well as the new European...
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EP Election Google Gadget
October 9, 2008
Google is planning on launching an online election service to cover all aspects of the European Parliament elections in June. If it is anything like the Google service for the US elections then it should give viewers the chance to stay up to date on the latest campaign maps, news, videos and blog posts from the election trail. This is a step in the right direction for European politics, hopefully increasing interest in the EP...
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Big lesson from wee Canada
October 9, 2008
Tired of all the election speculation coming out of the U.S. these days? Well allow this polite, humble Canadian to steer your attention north of the Canada-U.S. border to where another federal election campaign is underway - one that may be over before most of the world realizes it had ever began. I suppose it shouldn’t be surprising that since settling at Fleishman Hillard Brussels, I haven’t heard a peep about the excitement back...
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Interactive Medvedev
October 8, 2008
I’ve just watched President Medvedev’s first podcast. A picture speaks a thousand words and here’s a man who wants to demonstrate his importance. He has three computer screens, two mice (one for each hand?!) and more phones than I could count. Disappointingly there was no sign of the red telephone Medvedev follows other leaders in bypassing mainstream media to talk directly to the nation and show their more cuddly side. Britain’s politicians have been running...
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What do you mean you don’t have a website?
October 7, 2008
This morning, on my way back to the office, a marching brass band, 10 three-meter tall cardboard smokestacks and a few dozen people in black t-shirts carrying black balloons that read ‘NO MORE COAL’ headed the other direction towards the European Parliament building. I asked a girl for the group's website address, hoping to learn more. “We don’t have a website”, but she handed me a flyer. What do you mean you don’t have a...
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Blog the news that’s fit to print
October 7, 2008
Our colleagues to the north Fleishman-Hillard Edinburgh hosted a lecture last week about the US Presidential elections and Obama vs. McCain. You can read about the event on FH's Public Affairs Cloakroom blog and even see a short video of the remarks from Fleishman Hillard's Bill Black; former UK Ambassador to the US Sir Christopher Meyer, currently a member of FH's International Advisory Board; and the Right Honourable George Reid, former MP, MSP and Presiding...
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Obama and the iPhone
October 7, 2008
Image via CrunchBase There is little doubt that if queues to vote for the Democrats on November 4 are comparable to queues on the release of the iPhone, then Obama will be a happy man. Last week Obama’s team announced that the link between Obama and the iPhone ran deeper, with the creation of an application for the iPhone which encourages friends and families to vote. The imaginatively-named ‘Obama 08 Phone App’ has a ‘Call...