10 Yetis Examples of Good and Bad Public Relations - Thursday August 16th 2012

Aug 16th 2012

Good PR

I love Longleat Safari Park, so am glad to be able to use the attraction in my example of good PR today. Everyone loves a cute animal-related story and one involving two huge gorillas is no different from a piece about two fluffy kittens in my opinion.

I've read about Longleat in many papers and online today, after images were released of two gorillas being reunited after 3 years apart; following a separation after being raised together. Both born at Dublin Zoo, Kesho (aged 13) and Alf (aged 9) were separated when Kesho went to London Zoo to take part in a breeding programme.

Despite being infertile, he lived with 3 lady gorillas and became the dominant male silverback. The images today show Alf and Kesho being reunited in their new £3million enclosure, hugging, slapping each other on the backs and even shaking hands after welcoming each other with outstretched arms and instantly recognising one another. Awwww! Great PR Longleat!

Bad PR

If there are any parents reading this, you may be familiar with the Bumbo Baby Seats. If you don't have kids, they are basically small, specially shaped seats that enable babies to sit independently in an upright position.

A good idea, it may seem, and there are certainly plenty of parents that use them; probably without any trouble. However, it's just been announced that the South African company behind Bumbo Baby Seats has to recall nearly 4 million units after reports of injuries to infants using them.

Injury reports included 50 occasions when youngsters fell from the seats whilst they were being used on a raised surface and reports of 34 babies falling from the moulded foam seats whilst they were placed on the floor or at an unknown height. There were 21 reports in total of babies with fractured skulls resulting in falls from Bumbo seats.

In 2007 (October), 1 million Bumbo seats were recalled for additional labels to warn against placing the chairs on tables or kitchen tops. Owners of Bumbo seats are being told to stop using them and contact the company for a free repair kit that will include a restraint belt and more instructions of how to safely use them.

PR nightmare!