10 Yetis Good and Bad PR - Monday 4th August 2008

Good PR

The Sun, has announced that it will lower its price from 35p to 30p, effective immediately. The move is counter-productive when glazed over, but if you think about it; with talk of 'the end of papers' due to the fact that less companies are advertising in them, this actually makes sense. The Sun assert that circulation is growing, and with the price drop, they are now the cheapest tabloid in the stands - the public still want to read papers, ads or no ads, after all.

So, great PR, as it must be really difficult to get press when you are the press!

Bad PR

In a 'crackdown' on obesity, the government will be sending parents "official" letters telling them if their child has a weight problem, it has been announced today.

'Cracking down' sounds great, (although I'm sure parents are aware, which begs the question: why waste the time and money?) but this story has really annoyed me. In a bid to be more PC, and to avoid stigmatising children, government officials have stated that the letters will not use the word 'obese', rather using the terms 'overweight' or 'very overweight', despite obese being a clear, publicly understood medical term, and will refrain from using the term 'exercise', rather calling it 'physical activity', as adults apparently switch off when they hear or read the term.

People often roll their eyes when I start talking about health, fitness and obesity as admittedly, I'm highly opinionated due to being passionate about changing it, but do we think sugar-coating it will make parents, who are wholly responsible, whether they try and shift the blame or not, take notice? I believe that parents need to be given the truth, and if shock tactics work with non-smoking campaigns, give it a try for obesity. Informing parents that they'll outlive their kids just because they couldn't/didn't stop them eating poorly might have an effect, amongst other facts.

If the government are going to try something, they should at least try something that isn't just pussy-footing around the topic, and apply themselves to it to make a change, not just to be seen to be doing something.

Bad, bad PR. Definitely not Relating to the Public very well with this story...!

What's being done when it comes to public health.

What should be done with regards to public health. JUST KIDDING!!!

	Rich posted on 04/08/2008. Follow Rich on Google+.