Russian Invasion - Gazzy Must Die !

"Giant Hogweed Heracleum mantegazzianum A native of the Caucasus Mountains, grows to 4-5m tall, and can cause severe phytophotodermatitis if the sap gets on human skin." Wikipedia

One part of our Edinburgh WildLife survey was to locate this noxious weed so the council could attempt to eradicate it. The team in charge of the project waited for the Poet...err Press Officer to go on holiday & then they briefed me on doing the PR campaign.

I obviously didn't know the first thing about PR so I called a friend who also had a 'Community Programme' Job at a local newspaper. She told me that Journalists were lazy creatures and that a well written press release, accompanied by good photos and a press conference would usually guarantee plenty of column inches in the local press.

I did as instructed and set the date of July 6th 1988 for the press conference. How do I remember the date? Because it was the day that the Piper Alpha blew up killing 167 men. This terrible & very Scottish tragedy in the North Sea meant that nobody was interested in my curious Victorian, Russian, herbacious import.

However my press release did work. The Daily Record ran a story a few days later with the headline "Gazzy must Die" They even quoted me, even though I never spoke to them. Gareth Brown, spokesman for the operation said "It's taking a grip all over Scotland."

And that is why I never trust PR.