10 Yetis PR News

May 23rd 2013

10 Yetis Examples of Good and Bad Public Relations - Thursday 23rd May 2013

Good PR

A first edition signed copy of Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone by JK Rowling has been sold for £150,000 at auction. That's right, not £150 but £150k!!!

It's a unique copy containing handwritten notes by the author, with a 43 page commentary and a total of 22 original illustrations.

A telephone bidder won at the auction and bagged the book, which was originally published in 1997 and made JK Rowling millions.

Also sold at the auction at Sotheby's (Central London) was a copy of Roald Dahl's 'Matilda', with new Quentin Blake illustrations, which went for the second highest amount - £30,000. In total, the 'First Edition, Second Thoughts' auction raised £439,000 all for charity.

Bad PR

Nothing screams bad PR quite like a huge scale vehicle recall. Today, it's Nissan in the bad PR spotlight, after the vehicle manufacturer was forced to recall more than 800,000 cars. Already this year, Nissan recalled half a million vehicles due to problems linked to faulty airbags, but this time it's the steering wheels causing havoc.

841,000 Nissan vehicles worldwide are set to be recalled after it was found that a bolt used in the steering wheel was not screwed in properly. Apparently, there is no danger of sudden failure, but I doubt that'll reassure Nissan drivers who are probably now worrying about the possibility of their steering wheels falling off in their hands.

The recall will affect 133,869 models of the Nissan Micra here in the UK, built between 2002 and 2006 in Sunderland. The issue will be fixed by tightening the bolts or replacing the steering wheel entirely and the repair would take 15 minutes.

Although no accidents have so far been reported, Nissan has said that drivers will notice if the steering wheel is getting loose. Well, that's alright then.

	Shannon posted on 23/05/2013		post a comment

May 22nd 2013

Today Example of Good and Bad PR - Wednesday 22nd May 2013

Good PR

It looks like Justin Bieber is finally getting it right!

The 19-year-old singer recently donated a year-long supply of food to a school in Las Vegas. He used his time in Sin City, where he picked up a trophy at the Billboard Music Awards on Sunday, to visit the Whitney Elementary school. Justin Bieber spent some time with the 600 children unpacking the almost £100,000 worth of food supply he brought to the school with his mum.

His good deed appeared after receiving a hard time in the press for not showing up on time during his concerts, fighting with photographers and even being caught with drugs on his tour bus. Oh well Justin, we'll let you off with this one. You've done good kiddo!

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Bad PR

Sergio Garcia, a professional golfer from Spain, has been under the spotlight for making a racist comment about his rival Tiger Woods during the European Tour Player of the Year awards yesterday.

The Spaniard was questioned by the Golf Channel's Steve Sands. When asked if he would have the American (Tiger Woods) around for dinner during the US open, Sergio Garcia answered "We will have him round every night. We will serve fried chicken."

Garcia left on Tuesday night without giving any further explanation but later released a statement through the European Tour Player, declaring: "I apologise for any offence that may have been caused by my comment on stage during The European Tour Players' Awards dinner. I answered a question that was clearly made towards me as a joke with a silly remark, but in no way was the comment meant in a racist manner."

Even though the two players never had a 'true connection', Sergio Garcia undoubtedly crossed a line!

	Lise posted on 22/05/2013		post a comment

May 21st 2013

10 Yetis Examples of Good and Bad Public Relations - Tuesday 21st May 2013

Hello, Hannah here with today's Good and Bad PR.

Good PR

Ever thought of owning your own bunker? Well now you can, and apparently they're the latest craze in real estate to sweep the USA! The bunkers come kitted out with all sorts of luxuries including; TV's, swimming pools, gyms, basketball courts and some lucky people have a room for their private airplane. They also have the added bonus feature of being buried way down deep in the ground, designed to survive the apocalypse.

The developers, at Rising S Company, have created the 100,000 square foot bunkers so they can house families for years. However, before you run out and purchase one they are quite pricey. A basic 'starter' bunker 10 feet by 20 feet starts at $54,000 while the most expensive bunkers on offer go up to $10 million. Brad Roberson, marketing director for Rising S Company, stated that 'Budget and imagination are the only limits.'

Pretty good PR for the company, I can't imagine the extremes that these bunkers will reach in the future. However, having a secure place for any natural disasters is a good idea, but having one that feels as much like home as possible is a brilliant idea!

Bad PR

Marks & Spencer's annual profits fell to their lowest level in four years today due to the slump of clothing sales. Back in 2008 M&S made more than £1 billion, whereas now pre-tax profits for 2012/13 were £665.2 million. M&S said its sales had been affected by the squeeze on household conditions as well as unseasonable weather.

This comes after a series of bad situation for M&S including: being made to pay damages to Interflora after a trademark infringement and coming under fire over their online tax arrangements.

It's not been a good month for Marks & Spencer, let's just hope they have something up their sleeve to turn the company around.

	Hannah Pritchard posted on 21/05/2013		post a comment

May 20th 2013

Bonjour mes amis! I don't even know if that Franglish is correct, but what I do know is; it's Monday, which means good and bad PR.

Good PR

I couldn't resist this story for good PR. Helen Mirren visited a ten-year-old dressed as the queen to help fulfil his dying wish to have tea with the queen. Whilst the real Queen was unfortunately unable to attend, Helen Mirren ably filled the royal gap, dressing up in her queenly outfit for her current run in the West End and paying for Oliver Burton and his mother Catherine to watch the show. She then had a tea and cakes with him afterwards, staying in character for the whole time and even bringing in two corgis from the show to add to the authenticity.

A heart warming, yet heartbreaking story at the same time. Good PR to you Helen Mirren.

Public Relations

Bad PR

Kanye West. Some people are big fans. I'm not. It's emerged that he's decided to call his next album Yeezus. A cross between his nickname 'Yeezy' and Jesus. Originally he wanted to call the album I Am God, but changed his mind. Good move, you'd think, but he's apparently saving it for a single instead.

I remember him belittling French house duo Justice vs. Simian at an awards ceremony once after their music video was voted ahead of his and I haven't liked him since. The pair were respectful and he was plain rude, interrupting their acceptance speech and taking over the mic. I'm all about good manners and such a lack of consideration for others infuriated me. Fair enough you probably need a bit of an ego to get ahead in life, but some people take it too far. Kanye is definitely one of them.

Public Relations

	Lloyd posted on 20/05/2013		post a comment

May 20th 2013

10 Yetis Insight - How Real Are Pr Reality Shows?

So, let me start this off with a confession... My name's Hannah and I am a reality show addict. Yep, I watch pretty much every reality show there is out there, no matter how awful. I just can't help it. I feel like I know the Kardashians better than my friends sometimes.

So, I thought: what better subject to write an insight blog on than how true to life PR reality shows are? Of course, to write this blog post to the best of my ability I really had to do my research. So I set to watching some reality shows. Yep, it was a tedious task but someone has to do it, and that someone was me. (Alright, it wasn't such a task and in most cases it was me watching these episodes for the millionth time over and loving it!)

First off, let's talk about one of the best reality shows ever made in the history of life, the Hills! For all of you who have been living on mars for the past 6 years, I'll give you a quick synopsis. The Hills focussed on a group of friends who were originally from Laguna Beach in California, and moved to LA to chase their dreams of fashion, love and a career. It included your typical reality show highlights; fights, romances, awkward silences and most importantly lots of DRAMA. Now let's fast forward to the PR bit. Heidi Montag started off the show enrolled in FIDM (Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising) School. She swiftly decided that the education route wasn't for her and 'magically' landed herself a job at the public relations firm Bolt House. Her job was actually an event planner for the PR firm. Over all, the work that Bolt House seemed to do was quite true to life. However, within a matter of a few episodes Heidi went from stuffing envelopes to practically running their nightclub events. Where I do agree that you get thrown in the deep end when you come into PR, that amount of responsibility comes with time and hard work; something that we will all have to assume remained off camera for Heidi! Since leaving Bolt House, Heidi has taken the same route as most reality stars do: married a fellow reality star, underwent a series of plastic surgery and starred in more reality shows when the funds from the previous one ran out.

VERDICT- UNREALISTIC

Moving swiftly on to your next dose of PR reality. The show was called Kell on Earth, it featured Kelly Cutrone, the owner of PR agency People's Revolution. Kelly was also briefly in the Hills when one of the cast went to work for People's Revolution. Kelly is renowned for her no nonsense approach to the industry, with her catch phrase being 'if you have to cry, go outside'- one of my personal favourites! Because...

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I have to say the whole show is quite true to PR life. Her employees work hard and they get results, and to be perfectly honest that's the PR secret; there is no secret! You just have to work hard, understand what your client is after and have brilliant ideas. During the show, there are the usual dramas of clients refusing to pay, employees leaving due to the pressure and the occasional glamorous party. So well done Kelly, she truly did portray the realities of PR in her show instead of selling dreams.

VERDICT- REALISTIC

In the opposite corner comes the Spin Crowd; a reality show produced by Kim Kardashian featuring her long term friends Jonathan Cheban and Simon Huck, who co-own PR firm Command PR. Now, whilst the work they did was true to PR life, the attitudes and the general day to day running was definitely not!

The firm put together red carpet events and worked with high-profile celebrities. However, what the show featured the majority of the time was a lot of arguments between colleagues, a lot of crying and the PR professionals being very overly-friendly with their clients. Very little, real work actually seemed to be done- with most time being dedicated to reacting dramatically to every situation. Whilst it is brilliant when you can build up a good relationship with a client, there is a certain level of professionalism than should be kept to avoid dramatic and awkward situations.

VERDICT- UNREALISTIC

So to sum up what have we learned here? Well, basically the revelation that reality shows aren't that real!