118
Feature
POWERLIST 2008
WELCOME
TO JAMROCK
WHEN A BUNCH OF SPOILT HACKS WENT ON A
PRESS TRIP TO JAMAICA, LITTLE DID THEY KNOW
THEY’D ACTUALLY HAVE TO DO SOME WORK.
MICHAEL EBODA REPORTS
A
few years ago, someone wrote an article for the BBC about would get you disbarred or struck off. In advertising they give you
the unwritten rules of advertising. Intended as a critique an award.
of the way the industry continually regurgitates clichés, it In many ways, the journalistic equivalent of the advertising copy
included observations such as: women are locked in a constant guru is the travel writer. Once again, it’s a great job: you are invited
battle with their weight/body/shape/hairstyle; an act of male stu- to some of the most wonderful places on earth, live it up for a few
pidity (eg walking across a clean fl oor in muddy boots, putting the days, all expenses paid, come back and tell people what a great
dog in the dishwasher, etc) will always be met with a wry smile time you had.
from his partner, never genuine annoyance or anger; and any In this case, the unwritten rule is that, in exchange for a
over-the-counter medical product will always work instantly and comfortable business-class fl ight, a stay in the best suites in the best
100 per cent effectively. hotels and as much ‘leisure time’ (binge drinking like a teenager in
Designing commercials is many people’s idea of a great job. Walsall on a Friday night, while lying on a beach) as you can fi t in,
You get paid shed loads of money and all you have to do is con you write a piece that makes wherever you’ve been to sound like
the general public into believing that a product, person, event, or paradise on earth. Nod, nod, wink, wink, nobody’s any the wiser.
place is about a billion times better than it actually is; and the more So when Brixton-based travel agent Sackville Travel asked
successful you are at preying on the gullible, the more likely you are whether I was interested in going to Jamaica for a few days, along
to be hailed as a genius. In other professions, such levels of deceit with four other journalists, to write about the wonders of the ‘Land
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