M2S Media attracted huge media coverage for the plymouth prideevent 2008 which was held at the weekend.
Now in its second year, it obviously proved harder to hook news editors and programme directors than when this Gay Pride event was a ‘first’ for Devon and Cornwall last year.
But a combination of a brilliant entertainment line-up and some extremely interesting exhibitors and speakers meant there was enough to make some useful headlines, which all helped to attract about 2,500 visitors on the day.
During the event, which took place in Plymouth Guildhall and was opened by the city’s Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress, we had both BBC and ITV news crews turn up to do some filming for their weekend news bulletins.
We were not surprised, given the amount of interest generated in the city from a widespread marketing campaign run by the volunteer committee which organises the event.
What did surprise us, though, was when the BBC decided that none of the organisers ‘looked gay enough’ to be interviewed on camera.
As one said to the cameraman: “This is what gays look like – normal.”
In the end, a heavily pregnant Julia did the to camera piece. We don’t know if they thought she was gay, or if they wondered about how come she was five months’ pregnant.
Another interesting insight into the mind of the media came when the local evening paper, The Herald, turned up, having given it only sparse pre-event coverage this year.
The organisers were delighted to see them, until, that is, they realised the paper had only come looking for a fight – not with us, of course, but they were expecting a rival gay group to come along and cause trouble.
I won’t go into the detail, but the other mob, who wanted to do their own thing and had been quite rude about prideevent, were supposed to be marching militantly through the streets from the Guildhall to the Hoe.
The Herald, of course, arrived just at the time the march was due to start, but nobody from the other group came, so, seemingly a bit reluctantly, the reporter decided instead decided to have a look around the event, and the result was a surprisingly nice page write-up in Monday’s paper.
Our photo shows Julia outside Plymouth Guildhall giving the Beeb their interview.