Media virgins go bananas!

What’s the link between a drive to recruit 130 health volunteers in the next year to share their skills overseas – and bananas?

The first bit is clear:  Katja and I both continue to support VSO, and agreed to lay ourselves bare (metaphorically) to local papers and broadcasters for a bit of publicity.  Our hope: to prompt one or two people to consider volunteering.

Fortunately a slick public relations company generated media interest - we just talk about Cambodia (which we can both do in long, thrilling detail!).

Our first breakthrough was an interview with the Oxford Mail.  Now I’m all for homeworking and family-friendly policies, but I suspect the journalist’s demanding toddler may have distracted her from some of the details of our story.

How else to explain my reported use of the word “helluva” (never once passed my lips).  Or indeed my alleged reference to Katja as “the girlfriend”.  (Our former VSO colleague Sarah likened this to her husband Perry calling her “my first wife”!).

Not to worry - whilst the headline became our unexpected romance, the recruitment message was still there for literally dozens of avid Mail readers last Saturday.

And that was just the start:  this afternoon our burgeoning tour of southern English local media led us to the Banbury Road studios of BBC Oxford.  Perfect - I always knew I had a face for radio!

The presenter, Nick Piercey, was friendly and articulate - and had done far more research (though even he managed to say I was an architect and she was a ‘Katie’!). 

He was also interesting and unpredictable:  we had tried to prepare by swotting up on the countries where VSO place volunteers, and the health issues they tackle.  “So what’s the point of studying philosophy?” came the first question (I paraphrase) – he wasn’t going to allow us to get away with a straightforward advert!

He had clearly read my blog from Cambodia, though I never expected him to home in on a random moment when I found myself watching a boxing match on television with a bunch of soldiers in the house of Ta Mok, the notorious Khmer Rouge butcher.

After stumbling my way through the story he understandably switched to Katja - but again had an unexpected angle, quizzing her on early experiences in East Germany when the wall came down. 

“Bananas!” she exclaimed - that was her enduring memory.  Driving an old Trabant over the border people would throw fruit through the windows, sharing the unknown luxury with their deprived Eastern countrymen.

He clearly loved the story - though, as with the newspaper article, it didn’t have much to do with recruiting volunteers for overseas development! 

But maybe that’s the deal (as we are learning, now we are no longer local media virgins).  What we have to give is an interesting story.  If recruiting volunteers didn’t end up as the main focus, that’s not a problem. 

Because the message is still there; it’s just partially obscured by the girlfriend’s bananas.