When I was a small girl I had a little friend who would always copy everything I did. So when I got a new party frock, she would get her mother to go out and buy exactly the same frock, or when I decided to grow my hair in a particular style, she would then go and do exactly the same. When I was eight this seemed quite amusing, but as I got older and she wanted to copy my school work or write on the same subject for the school magazine it became very irritating. I was reminded of this when I noticed that a potential client with whom we had worked hard to demonstrate the value of PR by writing several proposals (free of charge) and suggesting lots of creative ideas had gone ahead with one of our ideas and copy we had written (great!) but only after telling us that they wouldn’t be using our PR services.

Now I know that there is such a thing as Intellectual Property Rights, but frankly the thought of having to engage a solicitor and pursue this through the courts is just plain silly, and so I have had to say to myself what I said all those years ago, imitation really is the sincerest form of flattery and I am very glad that you are seeing our ideas working for you. However, you need to remember the phrase “just a pale imitation” because ultimately the value of PR is in delivering the whole package – so good luck with that (you know who you are!).