Date published: 01.09.08 - not release date

Londoners tell Amy to beehive - Half the capital ‘sick’ of reading about Amy Winehouse’s hair-brained antics

Londoners are falling victim to Amy Winehouse fatigue, with half saying they are bored by constant newspaper stories about the troubled singer’s ongoing drug and relationship problems.

In a mid-summer media consumption study, agency Rainier PR polled 1,000 Londoners via Facebook about long-running ‘news stories’ that have interested them the least this summer.

Ongoing news about the daily movements of the 24-year old ‘Back to Black’ singer, whose alleged ecstasy taking recently made the headlines, have left 48 per cent of Londoners bored with Amy Winehouse news. It bored those aged between 35-49 the most, with a vote of 69 per cent. Youths aged 13-17 were found to be more tolerant of the bequiffed Camden crooner, with just two in five proclaiming news about her dull.

Other summer story sags that sapped the enthusiasm of London’s readership were:

•Cristiano Ronaldo’s much-touted potential move to Real Madrid (20 per cent). Men more found to be more bored by reports about the footballer’s super shiny shorts than women, no consolation to his ex-girlfriend

•The credit crunch, which saw its first anniversary this weekend, was found to be least boring, with just eight per cent surveyed on Facebook saying that they were tired of recession reports

•Gordon Brown’s departure speculation is more of a turn off for women than men, with 19 per cent of women and nine per cent of men tired of predictions about the Prime Minister’s removal

“London is sending a clear signal to the UK press – Amy’s overexposure is another factor that’s doing her damage. Wino wildly running around the streets at night acting strangely is hardly news anyway – Camden is full of people like that,” said Stephen Waddington, MD of Rainier PR. “

“At a time when many people are watching the pennies, it’s not surprising that the public have become tired of news about rock stars being odd, and pampered celebrities holidaying in exotic locations. The fact that Amy Winehouse is seen as six times more boring than the economy this summer illustrates this perfectly,” he said.

About the survey

The survey of 1,000 Londoners was conducted on Friday, 1 August, 2008 using Facebook.

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About Rainier PR

Rainier PR is a leading business-to-business and business-to-consumer technology PR agency. Based in London and with an extensive worldwide partner network, it employs more than 30 people and had 2007 revenues of £2.4m. Rainier PR has two sister agencies, Lighthouse PR and Custard PR. Rainier PR was recognised as ‘Best Consultancy to work for in Europe, 2006’ by the Holmes Report, repeating its success of the previous year. In 2006, Rainier PR was acquired by leading marketing group.

For further info please see: www.rainierpr.co.uk.

For further info about Stephen Waddington, please see www.rainierpr.co.uk/blog.

For more contact Stephen Waddington: 020 7494 6570