A weekly roundup of media news and talking points, sans effort

 
 
Image credit (C) Luton Anderson

Thought for the Week

“I’m urging people just to have a little balance here. I cycled this morning and it seemed perfectly fine to me.” London Mayor Boris Johnson commenting on the smog currently settled over the British capital, as pollution levels in the city and southern England reach their highest since records began.  

Weekly High

Naturally this week has been all about April Fool’s Day in the media world. We saw several great examples, from commercials to articles, but Honda’s attempt to convince us it has started offering customers the chance to ‘build their own’ just about takes first place. Not least given the rather observant dig at ‘those types’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8GLIJ_HQJ8

Weekly Low

We all know magazines love to bitch about whatever they think we’ll read, but American women’s lifestyle title Self Magazine definitely overstepped the mark when it focused on the outfit a cancer-surviver decided to don for a marathon. Unsurprisingly nobody was laughing, least of all the editorial team who apparently ‘had no idea’ the lady in question had been ill. Excuses, excuses…

Stories to keep an eye on

*Turkey has lifted its ban on Twitter after two weeks, with a constitutional court ruling stating the digital blockade breached freedom of expression laws. 

*Another lads mag bites the dust as the weekly title Nuts prepares to close.
*The European Parliament has backed a Net Neutrality Bill, which looks to ensure that Internet Service Providers cannot prioritise Internet traffic for major websites willing to pay additional charges, and states all domains must be treated as equally important. 

Just in case you missed it…

Smoking Gun has launched a new blog series in which we analyse UK newspapers and provide readers with an overview of the public relations opportunities therein. Our first edition is out now, and focuses on The Daily Mail. 
If there is a success story, blunder, or news event you’d like to see included email helloATsmokinggun.co.uk or tweet using #blaggersblog. Happy Friday!