10 Yetis PR News

May 13th 2013

10 Yetis Examples of Good and Bad Public Relations - Monday 13th May 2013

Wahey! Monday! Everybody loves Monday, cause that's my fun day, my I don't have to run day. Ahem. Here is today's example of good and bad PR...

Good PR

Nokia have unveiled a budget phone for only £65. It offers 17 hours of talk time and 56 hours of music playback. The real selling point for me though is the 48 days of standby battery life. Currently I own an iPhone 4 and the thing spends more time on charge than in actual use.

It's aimed at the Indian and African markets, and especially for those who can't afford smartphones but want to get involved in the smartphone revolution. It's got many smartphone features and Nokia has worked with Facebook and Twitter to develop apps specifically for it.

From personal experience in Uganda everybody seemed to own a mobile phone even if living in poverty. There was mobile network provider advertising on roadside houses in vibrant colours in every village, which I assumed the homeowners agreed to for a fee. The prevalence of mobiles was something that I was perplexed by, but it's obvious that Nokia have seen the potential in the burgeoning African and Indian markets. And if there's widespread interest then who can blame them.

Good PR to them.

Public Relations

Bad PR

M&S are getting the bad PR nod today. Apparently a tech savvy grandmother, attempting to send a friend an e-card, was warned about profanity in the content of the message. After checking for any offence, of which (after close scrutiny) there appeared to be none, she wrote a letter to M&S asking why it was rejected. It turned out that it was the name of her friend that was the potential source of umbrage. Her friend's name was Dick - the shortened version of Richard.

Apparently the cards are censored in order to avoid people sending any harassment via the service. The response of M&S was that "We must ensure our system is robust to protect our content standards.'

As Mrs Levy, the customer in question stated, 'it should not be beyond the wit of man to have a system that knows Dick is a name.' Too true, Mrs Levy. Too true. Bad PR to you M&S.

Public Relations

	Lloyd posted on 13/05/2013		post a comment

May 10th 2013

10 Yetis Examples of Good and Bad Public Relations- Friday 10th May, 2013

Hello All! Emma here with today's Good and Bad Public Relations..

Good PR
When it comes to camper vans, not many could compete with Volkswagon- and their latest instalment has won them today's Good PR accolade.

The German car manufacturer has unveiled its latest camper van- the T5 Doubleback- which uses sliding technology to transform the normal camper van into a '26ft home on wheels'. The camper van is pretty luxurious, and transforms to create a space for five people to sit comfortably- or make a giant bed. All the mod-cons are also included, including a fridge, cooker and lifting roof; and it's set to be a huge hit with travellers looking for a 'home on wheels'. At a basic price of £54,000 though, these travellers are going to have to be pretty comfortable financially.

The van has got some great press so far, so a deserved winner of today's Good PR.

public relations

The Camper Van that Dreams are made of

Bad PR
Who needs to wash their hands before serving food after planting their hand in a toilet? EVERYONE. EVERYONE DOES. But, sadly, apparently this isn't the case for the 'Flying Pizza' takeaway in Swansea, which has been fined £2,250 after its filthy working conditions were unveiled.

The takeaway has been caught allowing staff to flush a toilet manually (in the cistern) due to it being broken, and then going back to work without washing their hands. The cooking equipment was also found to be covered in dirt and grease, with frozen foods also found open in the freezer in dirty conditions.

Despite this, the takeaway owner still had the gall to maintain that his 'customers are very happy'. Somehow, we don't think he'll have many customers to worry about anymore.

public relations

Mmmmmmm.... dirt.

	Emma Kent posted on 10/05/2013		post a comment

May 9th 2013

10 Yetis Examples of Good and Bad Public Relations - Thursday 9th May2013

Good PR

We're all used to seeing reality TV shows like Big Brother and Britain's Got Talent popping up on our screens, but what if a TV project saw people leaving Earth forever to go and live on Mars?

Well, non-profit organisation Mars One, a private spaceflight project, is trying to make that idea a reality. There are plans to establish a human settlement on Mars by the year 2023, just 10 years from now. What's more, they want to televise every part of the decade-long mission.

So, where is the good PR in all of this? Well, Mars One asked people to come forward and register their interest if they wanted to take part in the project; which would involve a 2 year selection process and 7 years of training before they left for Mars, never to return.

78,000 people have so far applied for the chance to go to Mars (over just 2 weeks) and the CEO and co-founder of Mars One Bas Lansdorp expects half a million applicants before the deadline on August 31st this year.

He said "Mars One is a mission representing all humanity and its true spirit will be justified only if people from the entire world are represented."

The applications came from over 120 countries, including 3,500 from the UK, so it's turning out to be very popular indeed. Very cool, although I don't know if I'd fancy it myself!

Bad PR

Halal lamb burgers in city schools in Leicester have had to be removed by Leicester City Council, after traces of pork were found in a sample burger.

This is bound to cause outrage amongst some parents and students alike and their annoyance is likely to be directed at Paragon Quality Food Ltd, based in Doncaster, which manufactured the batch of frozen burgers that the pork was found in.

This is likely to cause a PR headache for the food company, the council and the schools involved in the scandal, so it's not the best news that could have come to light.

	Shannon posted on 09/05/2013		post a comment

May 8th 2013

10 Yetis Examples of Good and Bad Public Relations - Wednesday 8th May 2013

Hi Y'all, here are today's examples of good and bad PR. Enjoy!

Good PR

The Queen is set to start scaling back her official royal duties and sharing the load with Prince Charles. Buckingham Palace senior figures discussed how to deal with the monarch's advancing years. They concluded on enlisting her 64-year-old son, the longest-serving heir in British history, to take on a more prominent position as a 'co-head' of the Royal family.

This is brilliant PR for the royals, showing that they are a united family. It's also nice to know the Queen will get to relax a bit now as Prince Charles will be taking on the trips abroad more often.

We want the Queen to stick around for a bit longer, but also it's great to see Charles is being introduced more to the forefront of the Royal leadership. There's hope for you to be King yet Charles!

Bad PR

Abercrombie & Fitch's CEO, Mike Jefferies, apparently 'doesn't want larger people shopping in his store, he wants thin and beautiful people.' It has also been said that he 'doesn't want his core customers to see people who aren't as hot as them wearing his clothing.'

Abercrombie & Fitch don't offer women's trousers above a (US) size 10 however, men's clothing goes up to XXL, this was defended as men could be muscular football and wrestler players.
Mr Jeffries revealed in an interview in 2006: 'That's why we hire good-looking people in our stores. Because good-looking people attract other good-looking people, and we want to market to cool, good-looking people. We don't market to anyone other than that.'

The company has also had its fair share of other discriminatory issues i the past. Including, being sued in 2009 for only giving jobs to white applicants and forcing a British student who was born without a left forearm to work in the stock room out of sight from customers.

It seems that Abercrombie & Fitch need to rethink their strategies, as this and the slew of other discriminatory accusations are not good PR at all!

	Hannah Pritchard posted on 08/05/2013		post a comment

May 7th 2013

10 Yetis Examples of Good and Bad Public Relations- Tuesday 7th May, 2013

Happy glorious Tuesday everyone! Christina here to ease you back into the working week with today's Good and Bad PR, enjoy!

Good PR
Charities often have to be creative to compete with other marketing campaigns and this Spanish charity seems to have found an interesting way to reach out to the public about a topic that normally isn't something that a lot of people want to talk about: child abuse. The Anar foundation, which helps children who have been abused, have recently unveiled a new marketing campaign with a poster that can only be seen fully when looked at a child's height. When a child sees the poster, they'll see a hidden message 'if somebody hurts you, phone us and we'll help you' plus a telephone number; while an adult simply sees an image of a frightened child.

public relations

The Spanish charity foundation explained the reasoning behind the poster as a way to reach children who may be too frightened to speak out against abuse. The poster uses a lenticular printing technique seen in novelty postcards to hide secret messages within the photo and is a great way to help children in need. A well deserved Good PR story today.

Bad PR
It seems like Rihanna can't get away from bad press nowadays; not only did she cancel shows on her latest tour due to 'exhaustion' and illness, she recently disappointed her fans yet again when she arrived 3 hours late for her show in Boston yesterday night. Patient fans who attended the show were greeted with no opening act and no sign of Rihanna for almost 3 hours and many voiced their displeasure with the singer by booing and Tweeting. Even worse, Rihanna made no explanation about her lateness nor did she apologise afterwards, simply tweeting "#BOSTON I will never forget this night! I truly have deeper love for you now!! Thank you for making it extra special!! #DWT", which made her fans even more upset.

public relations

Bottom line - if you are going to cancel a show due to an illness, then show up 3 hours late to a gig, you are going to have some pretty annoyed fans. At the end of the day, your fans pay your wages so you should not take them for granted. Considering how many people are truly upset, annoyed and fed up with the singer's diva tantrums, I feel a Rihanna backlash coming on.

Oh dear Rihanna, get it together! We don't need another pop star going off the rails a la Bieber.