What a difference a year makes

The survey - whether genuine or contrived - has long been regarded by the PR fraternity as a good pretext for a press release, or as a way of boosting the chances of coverage for a weak story. Another is the anniversary.

We’ve recently been reminded about the outbreak of the Second World War sixty years ago and in November it will the twenty years since the fall of the Berlin Wall - all good so far, but when IKEA issues a press release telling us that the Billy bookcase is thirty years old, things are starting to get a bit silly.

When interviewed on the subject, journalists fall into two camps - there are those happy to explain the rules of the game (it has to be a round number, eg. not 249 years since the event) while others complain that good stories get passed over by editors simply because they don’t tick the ‘relevant anniversary’ box. Broadcaster and former controller of the BBC World Service, John Tusa confirms that a “In an ideal world if you have a good idea, you do it … however we’re all poor, weak people and if someone says there’s an anniversary we all say ‘how wonderful.’ We all recognise an anniversary. We don‘t always recognise a thought and an idea.”

So here’s looking forward to celebrations of jazz guitarist, Django Reinhardt’s centenary, the four hundredth anniversary of Galileo’s discovery of Jupiter - both in January 2010 - and hopefully a smattering of product press releases from opportunist commercial organisations and their marketing advisors. If you can’t beat them, join them.

In the meantime, check out this website if you need some ideas: http://www.ideas4writers.co.uk/date-a-base.htm