10 Yetis Examples of Good and Bad PR - Monday 13th July 2020

Happy Monday one and all. It is my turn to bring you the latest goings on in the world of PR, so without any further ado let’s get things kicked off with the good news…

Good PR

Sydmar Lodge Care Home

The first instalment of good PR comes from Sydmar Lodge Care Home based in Edgware. Having been in lockdown for four months, the entertainment manager, Robert Speker, decided to let the residents have some fun. His idea was for all of the residents to recreate some of the most iconic album covers of all time, including David Bowie, Adele and Queen. This is amazing, and just the heart-warming content we need right now!

Along with the previously mentioned acts, they have also recreated other iconic album covers, one lady recreated Britney Spears album cover, others recreated Michael Jackson’s cover art and another channelled her inner Madonna. My favourite is Vera, 93’s recreation of Adele, 21.

Lewis Hamilton calls for action

Lewis Hamilton won yet another F1 GP on Sunday, the first ever Styrian GP. After winning, he used his success to call on other F1 teams to contribute towards the world’s fight against discrimination and racism. Mercedes have led the way thus far, changing their iconic silver cars to black and taking a knee before races, as have many others. However, this isn’t widespread and more does need to be done and where better to start than the best driver on the grid.

The message to continue the fight against racism has been shared across all sports, with players taking the knee before kick off in the football and this latest statement from Hamilton insists work is being done but more must be done in order to ensure equality in society.

Captain Birds Eye

The final piece of good PR comes from Birds Eye as they have appointed a new captain to steer their branding and it is none-other than Charlotte Carter-Dunn, a 24-year-old foster mum from Gloucestershire. She won the competition due to her excellent knowledge of frozen food, she will appear on limited edition packs of their frozen foods. This is a small but equally significant stride in the battle for gender equality. Good work Birds Eye!

Bad PR

COV-IDIOT!

On the other side of the coin, our first piece of bad PR comes from down under. North Melbourne met Essendon in the AFL, at the end of the first quarter Luke McDonald appeared to cover his face during a brawl with Essendon’s Connor McKenna, who has never given a positive test for COVID-19. It is a bad look for McDonald as it was perceived he was taunting McKenna. He has since apologised for his actions, but it is rumoured that he could face charges from the AFL governing body.

Sport is the one of few escapes people have from Coronavirus, people don’t want to be reminded of it when they are trying to escape it for an hour or so.

Shein Swastika

The next dose of bad PR comes from Shein, who listed a Swastika necklace on their website for $2.50. In a statement, it was said the emblem payed tribute to the Buddha Swastika and not the similar Nazi one. However, in current society, many people will not know the swastika was once a religious symbol and will associate it instead with hatred and a regime to forget. In response to the backlash, Shein have now set up a product review committee full of people from different walks of life to prevent this sort of situation resurfacing. It is about time Shein introduced a product review committee, as recently as last week they were made to apologise after listing Muslim prayer rugs as decorative mats. It seems like Shein have a long way to go if they are to come back from these two mishaps.