As featured on The Media Blog (and Twitter, obviously).

I read an incredibly interesting article in the FT Weekend magazine about narcissism.

It includes this list of character traits which are typical of a victim of Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

Strikes me that it might be pretty common...

NPD – the diagnosis

A victim of narcissistic personality disorder will exhibit at least five of the following traits

1. A grandiose sense of self-importance

2. A preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love

3. A belief that he or she is “special” and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions)

4. A requirement for excessive admiration

5. A sense of entitlement – unreasonable expectations of especially favourable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations

6. Interpersonal exploitativeness – taking advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends

7. A lack of empathy and an unwillingness to recognise or identify with the feelings and needs of others

8. Enviousness of others – along with the belief that others are envious of him or her

9. A tendency to arrogant, haughty behaviours or attitudes

Source: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV

I just had a brilliant idea after a to-and-fro with @wonky_donky and @CMRLee on Twitter.

Why the hell hasn't Panini done a "Panini yourself" iPhone app for the World Cup?

It would be simplicity itself. Take a pic of yourself or a friend, select a hairstyle (mullet, naturally), tracksuit (Denmark '78), generate a suitably European name (Marcus Pinshofster), send it to your mates.

Easys
(New social media catchphrase. Just watch, everyone will be using it soon.)

I've just finished reading "Put Me Back on My Bike", William Fotheringham's excellent biography of British cyclist Tom Simpson, who died during the 1967 Tour de France on the slopes of Mont Ventoux (umm, which I'll be tackling in a month or so with Les Veloistes Gentils).

It's a really great read if you're into your cycling or just sport in general. I'm a bit late to it as it was first published in 2002, but it's been updated a couple of times since then, which demonstrates how much interest there still is in Simpson's story. He was arguably Britain's best ever road cyclist, but the circumstances of his death (he dies with amphetamines in his bloodstream and in his pockets) will always cast a shadow over his achievements. But there are many sides to every story, so read the book and decide for yourself. I'm now looking forward to reading Fotheringham's Fausto Coppi biog, "Fallen Angel".

Given the news that's rocked road cycling over the past day or so, the penultimate sentence of the Simpson biog's afterword couldn't be more apposite:

"The afternoon of 13 July 1967 will be pinpointed as the turning point, when cycling began a painful, and terminal, downward spiral from one doping scandal to another."

I caught the Gadget Show on TV last night and the team named their five favourite mobile applications. The only one I could remember this morning was the Photoshop Mobile app for the iPhone. It's free and it's a beauty, allowing for a decent selection of very quick and easy tweaks to photos taken with the iPhone (or stored on it).

Mucking around with a pic I took on the phone a couple of weeks back near Leicester Square (my little boy loves Minis, particularly racing ones) I quickly knocked up the different versions you can see here. The original pic is the first.

Lovely little application.

I'm off cycling again this year. Close followers will know that for the past couple of years a bunch of friends and I have spent a few days each spring cycling a few hundred kilometres for charity. We've become know (at least between ourselves) as Les Veloistes Gentils. It's perhaps the most rewarding thing I've ever been involved in.

2008 saw us ride from London to St Emilion. Last year we crossed the Pyrenees, dipping our toes in the Med near Perpignan and plunging in the Atlantic at Biarritz six days later after crossing some of the most famous mountain passes on the way. The full story of that epic little adventure can be found here and pictures here.

But 2010's ride looks like it'll be our most challenging to date. At just over 700km it's longer than last year's ride, and we're planning on doing it in five days rather than six...so that's an average of 140km a day. More than that, however, are the spiky bits. The picture above shows the ups and downs of the entire route, which starts in Geneva and ends in Avignon (more detail here). The first big spike - which comes fairly early on day two - is the legendary Tour de France climb to Alpe d'Huez. The second big spike, which comes later the same day (gulp...) is the Col du Galibier (as Wikipedia tells me "often the highest point of the Tour de France"). The spike right at the end, and the reason we're crossing country to finish in Avignon, is the awesome Mont Ventoux, for many cyclists the biggest challenge of them all.

It's going to be immense.

I'm really pleased that we'll be an even bigger group of riders this year. 10 of us tackled the first year's ride, we had a dozen last year and it looks like we'll have 18 this year. Plenty of apprehension; loads of excitement and the start of quite a bit of hard training right now.

We've got a while to get in shape - the ride starts on June 20th - and once again we'll be raising money for charity (which one we'll confirm in the next couple of weeks). If you're a business that would like your name emblazoned across our jerseys in return for a modest amount of cash then I'd love to hear from you. We'll also do our best to give you plenty of publicity for your support.

Reading Jackie Cooper's latest essay I agree with a huge amount of what she says. Almost everything in fact. And why not? Having worked for Edelman in both freelance and permanent roles, I've had a bit of contact with Jackie and have enormous respect for her. As you'd expect, as founder of Jackie Cooper PR she's a true doyenne of the consumer PR world.

But the headline (and also the first line in fact) really jars: "Why It's Time for Ad Agencies to Admit Defeat".

The PR industry has a real complex about the advertising industry - and it's one which isn't generally reciprocated. I can't quite work out whether is an inferiority or superiority complex...but it's a complex. The industry seems to clutch desperately to anything that might sound the death knell for advertising agencies, presumably so PR can nab all the budget that it believes has always been PR's by right. I don't get it. It often reminds me of the desperation in this...PR's Kevin Keegan to advertising's Alex Ferguson.

In the first line of her essay, Jackie says: "When ad agencies are rebranding themselves as "short form content agencies", and media agencies are suddenly sprouting production arms you know the jig is up."

Hardly. The world of marketing is changing. Marketing services agencies of all types are having to adapt to a world dominated by conversation, community-building and engaging content: advertising, PR, media planning, direct marketing...it's a challenge for them all. But to think that there aren't very smart people sitting in ad agencies working out how they can remain relevant is crazy. And the changes that Jackie points out above are evidence of that.

It's true that many advertising agencies haven't traditional been skilled in creating and delivering on-going consumer engagement campaigns; campaigns that start, develop and manage communities in which brands can participate. Their focus has been on 30-second spots, full-page ads and billboards. But that doesn't mean that they can't learn how to adapt (or, more likely, hire the expertise, as many are currently doing). They have the resources to do so and, more importantly, they often enjoy a direct line into the senior marketing decision-maker within brands and already have their hands on the bulk of the budget. 'All' they need to do is convince the client that they've re-engineered their business and crack on with the job.

Unfortunately, despite arguably having an existing set of skills that are ideally suited to an 'engagement' marketing model, PR agencies are (generally) a step away from the marketing director and often pigeonholed as providing a specific set of services at a certain proportion of budget. The barriers to changing that are significant.

In reality (or the very near reality) there should be no PR v. advertising discussion. Some PR agencies will thrive, some will fail. Ditto for the ad guys.

So can we stop it now?