The Guardian today (Thursday 19th) highlights a master PR craftsman at work and someone in a senior position in government wrestling with major communications perceptions and issues at a UK plc level. Peter Mandelson as Secretary of State for Business is particularly concerned about perceptions of UK currently on Wall Street and corporate America, that the UK is now "Iceland-on-Thames". He is understandably worried that this will impact on investment decisions in the UK by major global corporations. The articles surrounding the main story are particularly interesting in highlighting some of the key participants and issues which are framing the discourse. Termed "commentariat" by UK diplomats and referring to Wall Street columnists, pundits and economists.
It is unusual in an organisations, in this case UK plc, to find a senior person who has such antenna and insight about the mood of the current discourse, its significance and how it needs to be reframed. Perhaps, he has been able to use his tactical insight as well to realise that the discourse will gain greater currency if it can be linked with some element more immediate. His swearing and general attack on comments made by Howard Shultz, CEO of Starbucks while on a trip to the USA (covered in the Guardian on Wednesday 18th) has given him strong coverage back home - "Plucky Peter standing up for UK plc" etc. (Note the particularly strong discourse around this article - around 300 comments on the first day. Interestingly the Guardian has moved the commentary from original story on Thursday to today's development of the story, now over 400 comments, midday Thursday - a topic for another blog.) Boy, is Mandelson getting a good press now. He has also picked a good target as Starbucks has a current valuation of $7.5bn while three years ago was $25bn and is about to probably further damage the brand by introducing instant coffee. I kid you not.
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