Mark Borkowski is an acclaimed PR specialist, writer and industry commentator. Famed for his grand publicity stunts, he has been successfully advising celebrities and brands for four decades. Since first catching the publicity bug in 1979, his headline-grabbing stunts have included filling Selfridges with hundreds of naked people and gift-wrapping a helicopter for Harrods. In this in-depth interview, he argues that despite the proliferation of fake news, social media has made it easier to protect a client’s reputation; explains why artificial intelligence means PRs will be “redundant” within 15 years, and remembers the chaos he caused by setting a bunch of live scorpions loose in a BBC green room.