Media mastermind behind ‘The Most Hated Woman In Britain’ to open CommsCon
The man who masterminded the rise of Britain’s most infamous tabloid personality is to be the opening speaker at next month’s CommsCon conference.
Publicist Rob Cooper will share the story of how he used the British media to take aspiring glamour model Josie Cunningham from an unknown to regular front page fare.
Last month, Cooper and Cunningham featured in a TV documentary – Josie: The Most Hated Woman In Britain? – exploring how they manipulated the media to turn her into a celebrity.
The media strategy included plotting every aspect of her pregnancy on a whiteboard as a series of stories including plans to sell tickets to the birth and a provocative Twitter account designed to drive controversy.
The first big story broke on the front page of The Sun, the UK’s top circulating newspaper, with the story of how Cunningham had had breast enlargments funded by Britain’s National Health Service.
Cooper will be interviewed on stage at CommsCon about how he developed the media plan to build Cunningham’s profile and that of other clients, how he works with the media and how every tweet is crafted to trigger the maximum reaction.
CommsCon takes place on March 18 in Sydney. The draft program can be viewed via this link. An earlybird discount is available on tickets until February 20.
