Rupert Goodwins' Diary

Tuesday 2/9/2003
Hot news from north of the border, where canny Scots hoteliers are importing illegal jammers that prevent mobile phones from making or receiving calls. "Och, no service" think the hapless punters, who promptly pick up the bedside telephone and incur those legendarily tariffs that have given so many travellers a pleasant surprise. And what do the suppliers of these delightful boxes have to say for themselves? "This is a way to enforce etiquette of mobile phone usage where polite persuasion has failed."

I like that. I expect it to come up again when 'Grinder' Noggins is up in front of the beak for his latest armed robbery. "What, the shotgun? Oh that was just a way to enforce the etiquette of their advertised credit policy where my filling in the form for a loan had failed."

There are legitimate uses for such things: they're popular, if that's the word, in prisons and other secure areas where the powers that be don't want the inmates to have too much freedom to organise activities in the outside world. And a friend wants to modify one so he can zap mobiles on the move -- an idiot piled into the back of matey's car while nattering at speed, and it would be nice, thinks my pal, to make 100 yards around his motor a No Call Zone. As said friend has previously worked for the sort of company who make radar-guided missiles, I think that's the least he could do.

Rupert's PR Masterclass - Tuesday
Invite a journalist to an event attended by your client, and encourage the client to get pally with the jouro -- exchange business cards, express mutual admiration, slag off Man United, all those sorts of bonding things. Then, when the journo next wants to get some review kit following a launch, make sure that this never happens -- and where possible, ignore that journalist as much as possible.