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Cross/Gruff/Grass/Graph/Cruss

I am a member of a group on Facebook called, “People Who Always Have To Spell Their Names For Other People”. It is a worldwide collection of 381,326 who all join together to rant about the constant mispronunciation of their names – for anyone who has asked me for my name on the phone they will know me as Ruth Gross, G-R-O-double S for sugar...maybe not the correct phonetic letter but 95% of the time prevents mail arriving for Miss Cross/Gruff/Grass/Graph/Cruss

Rather a random topic to blog about it but I have been thinking about it this week following a conversation with somebody on the phone about my surname, who insisted I was wrong. Whilst I appreciate the anglicised pronunciation of my surname is Gross as in 144, the correct (and Polish version) is Gross similar to Cross. Yes it is Polish NOT English so if I correct you please don’t correct me back!

I apologise for the tirade but I know there are 381,325 other who know just what I mean!

Ruth G-R-O-S-S, granddaughter of Aleksander Gross, Zakopane, Poland

P.S. it is meant to be AleKSander, not AleXander

Credit Crunchie Escapes Cadbury

With all the news of doom & gloom there was some good news for Cadbury’s today as they saw a 14% increase their sales following the relaunch of 80’s favourite Wispa after a campaign on social networking site Facebook.

It is a very interesting turn of events from a PR practitioner’s point of view, as new media is becoming more important as a source of material. Thanks to over 2000 members of the BRING BACK CADBURY’S WISPA facebook group, the choccie firm have now brought the bar back. I don’t know if the person who set the group up actually works for Cadbury’s or not but in our research for current & new clients, and local radio stations, show that more and more employees/communications folks are setting up discussion groups, social groups to reach new audiences.

I’m not sure if we’ll be replacing our press releases with social groups but it certainly is starting to factor in our communications strategy...it will be interesting to see if any other firms follow suit, especially in the run up to Christmas.

Ruth.

Living legends at Notts Arena

I have met a lot of people in my life, I have met some of the best sportspeople in the world, cyclists and rugby player and I have even met Hollywood actors but on Friday night I was privileged enough to just share the same breathing space as three absolute living legends.

I went to watch Queen & Raul Rodgers at the Trent FM arena and it was absolutely amazing. Yes I hear you scoff, how can it be Queen without the presence of Freddie , I know because I was dubious about how it would work but it did, it really, really did.

Freddie was very much there in spirit and it was more of a celebration of the music than the ‘next generation’ of the band. A 15 minute guitar solo from Brian May and the same from Roger Taylor who beat out an impressive rendition of ‘another one bites the dust’ on an electric double base proved that these two chaps are indeed bordering on genius. Paul Rodgers was a sympathetic lead man, not trying to make the classics his own but very much doing justice to the fans young and old packed into the arena. I was concerned during the first few songs that his voice just wasn’t strong enough to be heard over the music, but a tweak from a sound guy and he was off, and in his element.

The highlights for me? Too many but I was particularly impressed with the Bohemian Rhapsody, a giant image of Freddie playing the first verse started the song which was continued by the band & audience alike. The other was ‘We Will Rock You’. I looked out to see 18,000 or so people clapping in unison –Brian May said to the audience, I wish I could swap places with every one of you so you could feel the electric atmosphere tonight. It was pretty good from where I was sitting!

Ruth