I've never spent much time wrestling with my conscience, though I've often been told I should
Published 06 March 2000
How times change. Here I am in the chairman's box at Fulham Football Club alongside representatives of the president of Venezuela and surrounded by some of the most famous people from the world of football. It's Craven Cottage, it's a cold Tuesday evening and in front of me the best young players from this country are playing the Argentinian under-21s on the same pitch where over 50 years ago I stood with my dad and brothers watching the only hero I've ever had, Johnny Haynes, displaying his unique talent.
It seems like no time at all, but then time flies when you're enjoying yourself. I remember with affection the humour and camaraderie I experienced on the terraces during the fifties and sixties when I was a regular at the Cottage. Even if the game was boring, the repartee and good-natured banter between rival fans would compensate for the occasional lack of excitement on the pitch. My new PR role at Fulham combines a love of football, my support for a side I've followed since I was a small boy and the experiences - from the hilarious to the sublime - you can have in the company of Fulham's chairman, Mohamed Al Fayed.
I stumbled into public relations through a love of water polo, which had led me into local journalism and then the press office at EMI records. Here, in the early sixties, I helped to launch British and American artists, including the Beatles. It's amazing how, these days, PR and spin are everywhere. My attitude to the industry, I've noticed, seems to be very different from those members of the PRCA (Public Relations Consultants Association) with whom I debated the subject of "The Image of PR" recently. As I've never taken my own image seriously, it's interesting and hugely entertaining to find so many practitioners who are genuinely concerned about the media criticism of PR spin. To me, PR people are extremely lucky to be at the right time and the right place: during the past decade, everyone and anyone, including the Royal Family, have woken up to the importance of getting the right image across to the public. The best way of proving the effectiveness and importance of PR is to use radio and television to reveal successful PR campaigns and practices. The print media, instead, will never provide opportunities for public-relations people to put a positive spin on the work they do - don't expect praise, I felt like telling my colleagues: it won't happen.
I've never spent much time wrestling with my conscience, although I'm often being told that I should. But wrestling was very much on my mind on Sunday, 28 February. Eyebrows were raised in the dining-room at the Royal Spa Hotel in Bath, as I sat down to a breakfast meeting with three giants who were representing the ECW, the wrestling federation of America, who are over here to discuss the promotion of their forthcoming new ECW video computer campaign with me, which they are bringing out. All three of them were just under seven feet tall and built like wrestlers, and accompanied by three extremely vivacious and curvaceous young ladies. You can imagine the looks and reactions from the residents of this traditionally conservative hotel. Also joining us for the breakfast meeting was a young lady from Kent, currently known as Caroline Hageman, but who will soon be given some bloodcurdling wrestling title before launching her career as the first British woman ever to join this all-action American wrestling circuit. Brian Jacks, Britain's former Olympic judo and wrestling champion, who has been coaching this 20-year-old Kent beauty, joined us. After breakfast, Brian proceeded to help Caroline strut her stuff: her kick- boxing, martial arts and wrestling skills were displayed for the benefit of the assembled TV crews and journalists gathered on the lawn outside the stately hotel. It was a bizarre if productive Max Clifford PR exercise - one that the hotel residents, in ever-increasing numbers, seemed to enjoy.
I had come to Bath for the weekend to address the Bath Literary Festival on the subject of fame. On stage, I join Alan Jackson, Times writer and author of a very good book called Enough Candy - a personal and highly entertaining account of his exposure to the egos of the rich and famous and their courtiers. During the 90-minute conversation with Alan and the audience, I answered questions about fame and the famous.
From a wet and dreary Bath to a warm and sunny Marbella where I am currently having meetings at La Cala Leisure Resort regarding a charity La Cala/Silks celebrity golf tournament, which I'm helping to arrange for June. Cross-fertilisation is something I spend a lot of time doing - it is commonplace for me to put events together that benefit several clients at the same time. The tournament is being sponsored by La Cala and Silks restaurant. Naturally, the event will attract a lot of the stars who are also my clients. We aim to raise a large sum of money for the Rhys Daniels Trust, which raises money to provide accommodation so families can stay near their seriously ill children in hospital, in whatever part of the country they happen to be. (The Trust is just one of the many charities for which we do free PR.)
Sunshine, sport, family and friends, good food and laughter. No wonder time goes by so fast.
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