Dont ask me why, but London's central shopping area was full of Italians today. Recently, the UK media has focussed on Greece in its coverage of the euro crisis, but should the BBC and its broadcast rivals now be booking airline seats for Rome? Working in Brussels at the launch of the euro, I remember all too well the gossip there which alleged that Italy had added the value of its black economy to the official staistics in order to join the euro community. Hearing so much Italian this afternoon made me think of the euro crisis not so much in term of markets, but in the international nature of companies. Most UK consumers will know of EDF and O2, but few will realise that one is a French company and the other, owned by Spain's Telefonica. If the economic woes continue, I can well imagine the demands for more lobbying to come from boardrooms in Frankfurt or Madrid. How that might be received in other markets, such as the United Kingdom, is an interesting question. What is sure is that the PR industry faces a challenging time.
