Labour deputy leader and shadow culture secretary Harriet Harman struggled to woo the advertising industry at the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers’ annual lunch.
She came with a friendly message that the party would be hands-off in terms of regulation so long as ad folk “keep ahead” of the public debate on issues such as advertising fatty and sugary foods to children and she promised any criticism of the industry would be “evidence-based”.
That followed shadow culture minister Helen Goodman’s inflammatory talk about banning ads earlier this year. But Harman showed she did not know her brief by failing to answer a question about whether Labour would bring back the Central Office of Information (COI), Whitehall’s well-regarded in-house marketing body, which the Tories axed. She referred to it wrongly as “the CLA” and had to ask what exactly it was.
Parton promoted during Glastonbury
Dolly Parton’s management took every opportunity to make the most of her appearance at the Glastonbury festival.
Her official Dolly Parton Twitter feed even paid for “promoted” tweets during the weekend to encourage new fans to start following the 68-year-old US country singer who has hit three million followers.
Peter Fincham sells ITV shares
ITV programming supremo Peter Fincham has sold almost half his shares in the broadcaster for £1.8 million. Some say his sale of a million shares at 175.8p each — below their £2 peak earlier this year — is hardly a vote of confidence in the autumn schedule, but it is likely to have been at a big profit.
Fincham has been at ITV for six years and share awards made in 2009, when the stock plunged as low as 17p, have risen tenfold.
