And so the race
that stops a nation (and it does) is over for another year. Celebs are winging their way back to Sydney to stand in front of even more promotional 'PR' boards, different to the ones they stood in front of last week.
 |
| Jennifer Hawkins |
 |
| Delta Goodren |
PR boards are a new and unwelcome addition to the racing season in Melbourne, being introduced in 2008 where a (very large) extra fee is now paid for their use in your marquee. Publicists are convinced they work in promoting a product.
 |
| Rose Byrne |
It was around 60 years ago that the
Red Carpet was basically invented by Australian born publicist
Percy Savage who convinced a perfume manufacturer in Rome to roll out a red carpet
ala Hollywood and invite movie stars like
Elizabeth Taylor to the launch. They did and it was a roaring success and Savage- who
Yves St Laurent named
eau Sauvage after, went on to become one of Britain and France's most popular and powerful publicists.
 |
| Percy Savage |
The
Shuttle took afternoon tea with Savage in Chelsea in 2002, and asked him what he thought of the direction in which his undoubted brilliant invention : the
celebrity launch in Haute Couture- had gone :
"I launched a nightmare" he replied.
By the weekend we will be well and truly sick of hearing about the
Melbourne Cup as thousands of words will be filed by social hacks. Here are a few snaps sent to us by our Cup mole disguised as a well worn fascinator.
We ditched the one of
James Packer and
Shane Warne : far too obvious and no doubt the Sydney media
currently in the grip of Packer's PR war and uncontested bid to build a new multi-million dollar casino at
Bangaroo will slavishly do his bidding.
