Shaken and Stirred

Understandably for a film that has been delayed by more than a year due to script rewrites and COVID, anticipation is high. Very high. Not only shaken and stirred, but with an extra shot of vodka.

If cinemas are banking on the 25th Bond film – Daniel Craig’s last – to fill auditoria and get the tills ker-chinging, then PRs are similarly banking on it to help shift their products. If I had a pound for every Bond-themed press release I’ve received this last month, I’d be richer than Barbara Broccoli.

I don’t object to these pitches, and understand the desire to be newsy and relevant. Fashion, watch and drinks brands featured in the film will quite understandably want to trumpet this from the rooftops. But some of the pitches are more tenuous, and seem a little forced – like the betting firms slashing odds on some random celebrity to be the next James Bond, or the aquatic park claiming their octopus (renamed Octopussy, obvs) is a massive Bond fan.

Better to pitch differently than in a manner that seems inauthentic.