The Peaks and Troughs of Celebrity Endorsement

Posted on March 11, 2011 by Joseph Reaney

[ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON 19TH APRIL 2009 BY RED C MAGAZINE]

Really, what’s the point of celebrity endorsement? Does anyone actually care what kind of natural yoghurt tickles the tastebuds of a vacuous reality star, or which department store has flip-flops to fit a has-been pop singer? Perhaps, or perhaps not… it really depends who the celebrity is, and whether they appeal to the product’s target market. I, for one, am happy to believe that Peter Kay really does enjoy a cheeky pint of John Smith’s, and that Stephen Fry genuinely relishes “the soothing taste of Twinings”. And I’m also thoroughly convinced that Kerry Katona does – or did – her big shop at Iceland.

Good celebrity endorsements rely on a careful marriage between product and ‘star’. If the collaboration works then both brand and celebrity could reap the rewards, but if the two are utterly mismatched then the association could have a severely damaging effect on product sales, profits and worse – reputations. Continue reading →

Ischia’s Wild Winter Warmers

Posted on February 6, 2011 by Joseph Reaney

I have had a new travel article published in February issue of Shoestring Travel Magazine. It’s about the hot springs of Ischia in Italy, and here’s how it starts:

“It was one of those bitterly cold December days in southern Italy, when the chill wraps itself around your bones and draws you towards winter, and I was freezing to the seat of my newly-rented scooter. The frosted palms and agave plants blurred at my sides as I tore down the mountain, enduring the icy gales for the tropical target that lay ahead: one of Italy’s wildest and most unique thermal spas…”

If you’d like to read more, simply click here for the whole article. Or you can visit the Shoestring website to read the entire (excellent) edition of the mag absolutely free.

Getting Back to Losing Ways

Posted on December 23, 2010 by Joseph Reaney

As England’s World Cup dreams turn to soiled bed sheets for the second time in six short months, Joseph Reaney asks if it’s time for the country to get back to losing ways.

After a week of endless debates, accusations and excuses, the country has finally settled on the key reasons why England’s vomit-inducing World Cup pity plea ended its long life nestling in the u-bend of an Alpen-clogged Swiss shitter. In the end, we decided, it all came down to three things: the British media’s nasty habit of reporting the facts, the FA’s naivety/arrogance/collective ugliness and Sepp Blatter’s thoroughly unpatriotic lack of neutrality (although personally I’d also like to see some of the blame fall at the feet of Guy Garvey – after all, there are only so many times you can listen to One Day Like This without feeling the irrepressible need to defect to Russia.) But whatever the reasons for the nation’s failure, the simple fact is that England weren’t good enough. What baffles me is why this constitutes news; surely not being good enough is what we’re good at. Continue reading →

Transdniestr: Last Kid on the Bloc

Posted on November 23, 2010 by Joseph Reaney

I’ve recently had a travel article published in the latest issue of Shoestring Travel Magazine. It’s about Transdniestr – the last remaining communist state on the old Eastern bloc – and here’s how it starts:

“1989 was a watershed moment for Europe. It was the year when Poland, after 44 years of stringent Soviet rule, finally turned its back on the communist ideal. This act of defiance was the spark that lit the fire of revolution across Eastern Europe, and within the next three years East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Romania and more than a dozen other socialist states – including Russia itself – had overthrown their respective governments and entered a new era of capitalist democracy. Communism in Europe was dead and buried.

Well, almost buried. For as the world watched Poland and co. march towards a bright new dawn, no-one seemed to notice that one tiny piece of the Eastern Bloc had been left behind…”

If you’d like to read more, simply click here for the whole article. Or you can visit the Shoestring website to read the entire issue for free. I’ve also been commissioned to write for the next Shoestring Magazine, so watch this space.