Ellee Seymour

Veronica has a lot to smile about since giving up booze

I don’t think Veronica ever stops smiling, she is always incredibly cheerful and upbeat. However, life wasn’t always like that for her, she used to be a binge drinker and hit rock bottom. Now she is a recovered alcoholic and living life to its fullest.

She was a client earlier this year and we had amazing coverage in the local press promoting her Cambridgeshire clinic, The Development Centre, which helps those with drink and drug addiction. As a result, her story has been picked up by other media and tomorrow morning she is appearing with Lorraine Kelly on GMTV Today. She rang me in great excitement to pass on the news.

Veronica’s definition of having a drink problem is how much space it occupies in your head, how often you spend thinking about it. Why not try her test and find out:

1: Men – How often do you have eight or more drinks on one occasion?

Women – How often do you have six or more drinks on one occasion?

(One drink counts as half a pint of beer, one glass of wine or one single of spirits.)

Answer either: never, less than monthly, monthly, weekly, daily or almost daily.

2: How often during the last year have you been unable to remember what happened the night before because of how much you drank?

Answer either: never, less than monthly, monthly, weekly, daily or almost daily.

3: How often during the last year have you failed to do what was expected of you because of drinking?

Answer either: never, less than monthly, monthly, weekly, daily or almost daily.

4: In the last year, has a friend, relative or doctor been concerned about your drinking and suggested you cut down?

Answer either: no, yes on one occasion, yes on more than one occasion.

Score questions 1, 2, 3 and 4 as follows:

Never 0

Less than monthly 0

Monthly 2

Weekly 2

Daily or almost daily 4

Score question 4 as follows:

No 0

Yes, on one occasion 2

Yes, more than one occasion 2

The score for hazardous drinking is 3 or more. (NHS Fast Alcohol Screening Test)

And my thanks to Veronica for passing on Orya to me as a new client in need of PR.

These cards won’t behave, but doesn’t Orya have a great smile?

Orya and his business partnerMartin hope to become king of online greeting cards. Their unique feature is that they handwrite the message and post them to the recipient.

Having recently launched Scribble.co.uk, Orya has been amazed by the power of viral marketing. As a result of being mentioned on a top US blogsite, he has notched up almost 200 clients, including businesses who want to show their appreciation to customers and employees.

I took some pubilicity pics and liked this one, showing Orya’s lovely beaming smile as the cards blew over. Of course, we had to issue a perfectly posed shot, which we did eventually get. And here is our press release.

If you haven’t ordered your Father’s Day card yet, then look no further, Orya will see to it for you.

Update 20th June 2006: We have had this excellent coverage in today’s Cambridge Evening News. Orya’s smiling face (from my photo) was put on the front page of the Biz News supplement and he was the p3 lead story again, with my pic.

The Yearly Kos convention

How long will it be before our political candidates actively woo the UK’s leading political bloggers for favourable coverage? How many of them will be the centre of a sensational weblog revelation in the run up to the next general election?

Have they been keeping a close watch on the USA’s wanna-be Democratic candidates who have actively been courting bloggers at the now famous Yearly Kos convention? Despite all their parties with chocolate fountains and Elvis impersonators, the bloggers have firmly said they are not yet ready to throw their weight behind any candidate for 2008. The candidates know their future success could dependon high profile blog support.

The influential Daily Kos web log is written by a liberal community of commentators and attracts an audience of 20 million people a month, seriously rivalling national newspapers in the US for readership.

It caught my eye a week ago and the event has attracted intense media coverage in the UK too. Today’s Times reminds us of the impact bloggers have had on USA politics. Be warned, it could happen here too:

• Bloggers revealed that a CBS news story questioning President Bush’s military record was based on forced documents forcing Dan Rather, the anchorman, to resign.
• Senator Trent Lott resigned in 2002 after his comments apparently supporting racial segreation appeared on blogs.
• Bloggers were given press passes to the Republican and Democrat convention for the first time in 2004.
• Eason Jordan, a CNN executive, resigned after bloggers criticised him for claiming that the US was deliberately killing journalists in Iraq.
• When Neil French, a British advertising executive, said at a private dinner in Toronto that women did not deserve to reach the top of his industry, he was revealed by a blogger.

We certainly have the same influence here. Iain and Guido are often breaking news stories. And fortunately, Tory bloggers are the most active and passionate, long may it continue. I think it may be worth attending next year’s Daily Kos conference to see what we can learn.