10 Yetis Examples of Good and Bad Public Relations - Thursday 23rd August 2012

Aug 23rd 2012

Good PR
My example for good PR today surrounds a certain TOWIE star and that downright terrifying fox from Foxy Bingo. A new range of fake tan called 'Fur Real' has been launched by Foxy Bingo alongside TOWIE's always-tanned Lucy Mecklenburgh.

Exclusively available for £9.99 from Just Beautifully (great PR for that site too) the tanning gel will also be given away as prizes from Foxy Bingo. Foxy himself, or the man inside the fox suit (if you prefer), said, "It's been a right horrible summer weather-wise but I knew pictures of Lucy in her bikini would cheer everyone up. I wanted someone similar to myself to launch Fur Real, so with Lucy being both attractive and a lovely shade of orange, I thought we were the perfect pairing."

Lucy chimed in, "The only celeb who rocks orange better than me is Foxy himself! I've already got my own swimwear range and nothing compliments my designs better than a nice tan."

So that's good PR for Foxy Bingo, good (if not cheesy) PR for Lucy from TOWIE and good PR for her swimwear range which she managed to talk about. Oh, and not forgetting good PR for Just Beautifully. Consider that PR bandwagon well and truly jumped on.

Bad PR

Sometimes, people working in retail cheekily give their friends 'mate's rates' discounts when they turn up at their till. Sometimes, shop staff will try and sneak an item out for themselves without paying. And then there's the Apple Store at the NorthPark Shopping Center in Dallas, Texas, where staff went way beyond the realms of idiocy.

At what is now though to be the most corrupt Apple store anywhere, one manager traded heavily discounted Apple products for a stomach stapling procedure. As you do.

Two former employees of the store in question told Gizmodo magazine that the regional corporate manager ran the place like a personal playground, but other staff members got up to no good too. Just a few examples of other unruly behaviour included:

Staff would apparently purposefully smash iPhones whilst boozed up at parties to see how many replacements they could get from the storeroom, exploiting the lax return and exchange policy at the time and making false transactions.
Staff would allegedly often be drunk or on drugs whilst at work
Staff would supposedly destroy the devices of rude or annoying customers
A shrine to whining customers was created in the back room.

Oh dear Apple. Best keep a better eye on your 'genius' staff!

PS. I still love my iPhone.