Aurora Comms Blog

The Brain Game

Posted on 02. Dec, 2009 by NW1er.

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Writing this month’s Aurora top 20 got me thinking about mental health issues and how this is managed in the UK. A range of opinions and challenges exist in this area, making it a complicated one for all involved. Below I explore the topic in some more depth.
Prevalence and approach
In the year 2000 one in [...]

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Side step or step up – what to do with Web 2.0?

Posted on 16. Nov, 2009 by NW1er.

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Chatterings are afoot – Sidewikis have burst on to the Web 2.0 scene and colleagues in pharmaceutical communications are talking: what are they, what are the implications and what can we do? Aurora’s very own Neil Crump has immersed himself in the ‘sidewikiverse’ and has been providing some top tips for companies facing this conundrum.
Recently [...]

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Is Fox Mulder right? Should we trust no one?

Posted on 12. May, 2009 by NW1er.

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In the final episodes of season 9 of the X Files, the cynical and sardonic FBI agent Fox Mulder is being tried by an unbalanced military jury that has a short-sighted view of societal well-being. The fictitious jury, and those people it serves, believe that it is often best to keep information from the public, [...]

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Undue ‘switch bashing’ or a genuine concern?

Posted on 06. May, 2009 by NW1er.

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It’s no surprise that mystery shopping journalists from publications such as the Sunday Telegraph and Daily Star Sunday have donned their anoraks with the launch of Alli and set forth to test pharmacies – the same was true when simvastatin 10 mg switched. I don’t object to this type of investigative journalism, because if something [...]

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Not just another internal newsletter!

Posted on 16. Apr, 2009 by NW1er.

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2009 is stacking up to be an intriguing year for industry – times are changing and there are certainly challenges ahead. Yet there is much to be positive about, and we have been working with our clients to help communicate this to internal audiences. Two examples are of note: assisting one client with getting company-wide [...]

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Turning point for talking therapy

Posted on 09. Mar, 2009 by NW1er.

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This weekend, The Observer carried news relating to a Department of Health announcement to deliver a ‘package of measures’ to help unemployed people experiencing depression/anxiety get back to work. At its core, the recommendation focuses on increasing access to talking therapies so that unemployed people with depression can address mental health issues and subsequently be [...]

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Sex, sight and sound

Posted on 24. Feb, 2009 by NW1er.

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I couldn’t sleep last night so was fiddling with my Blackberry in bed – sad, I know. I came across the iGoogle function, which allows you to have a personalised news stream to your Blackberry. Great, because you only get three or so main news stories on the BBC mobile site. iGoogle feeds the top [...]

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Unintended consequences

Posted on 17. Feb, 2009 by NW1er.

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To celebrate Darwin’s 200th birthday, Professor Sir David King, formerly the Government’s Chief Scientific Advisor, and Professor Richard Dawkins, all round advocate of science, delivered a riveting presentation on, “Can British science rise to the new challenges of the 21st Century?” I was fortunate enough to get tickets for this event so took a trip [...]

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The future of journalism?

Posted on 12. Feb, 2009 by NW1er.

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I attended a talk recently on the future of journalism, where Daniel Dodd, head of online at the BBC, and Roger Alton, editor at the Independent, discussed current trends in news and the progressive move to online content. Lively and informative, the discussion demonstrated how aggregate news sites, such as Yahoo, are the most used [...]