CorpComms Magazine

On my way into a recent press conference in Singapore, the PR handed me a badge as well as the usual information pack rammed full of documents that will inevitably never be read.

The occasion was the signing of a ministerial memorandum between the UK and Singapore designed to foster co-operation between the two Olympic hosts.  London may be holding the games in 2012, but Singapore is the location for the first-ever youth Olympics in 2010.

Being slightly late for the all-important signing ceremony, I shoved the badge, which bore the Singapore youth Olympics logo, into my pocket and was heading toward the function room when the Singapore government PR called me back unexpectedly.

'Can you put that badge on?' she asked. Taken aback, I explained that as a journalist I try to remain impartial and not support specific causes just because I'm attending a press conference.

Adopting a tone of righteous indignation, she told me that all the other journalists were wearing it (I soon found out that was untrue) and suggested that I was ungrateful for refusing to follow suit. 'At the very least attach it to your bag,' she urged as I walked off, bemused.

Now, I'm all for harmonious relations between hacks and flaks but the implication that I should dutifully wear a badge sporting a corporate logo just because I'd been invited to a run-of-the-mill press conference is surely pushing it too far.

Can you imagine wearing a London 2012 badge while questioning Tessa Jowell about why the government has had to increase the Olympics budget yet again?

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