Around a year ago I was browsing Jeremiah Omyang’s idea that one day the relationship between PR companies, consumers and brands would flip over, with PR Agencies representing communities, rather than brands. He takes this idea a long way into territory which he himself says seems far-fetched, with consumer groups banding together to pay PR [...]

I’m on record for thinking that European Citizens Initiatives (ECIs) could backfire, or, as Simon Blackley put it recently: “the words ‘shoot’ and ‘foot’ spring to mind” My reasoning a couple of months ago was that people would be set up to be disappointed by organisers of badly conceived ECIs, who would blame the EU [...]

I’ve decided to be a grouch until Spring fully arrives, which is why I am going to do the unthinkable and criticise the European Citizens Initiative against poverty. Like my previous post on the first ECI, my criticism is not about the content at all – who could criticise any initiative to reduce poverty? My [...]

Last week MEP Martin Kastler (EPP-CSU) launched the first European Citizen’s Initiative (ECI). Is this a slow-motion train wreck, or the dawn of a new era of democracy? Two things immediately caught my eye when I checked out “Mum and dad belong to us on Sunday” (via @Kosmopolit via @andrewjburgess. Update: Kosmopolito blogged on this [...]