10 Yetis Examples of Good and Bad PR - Monday 1st October 2018

Hey everyone, Harriet here to bestow upon you this week's good and bad PR.

There were a number of bad PR stories out there but I managed to narrow my picks down to two - I hope you enjoy reading a brief overview of my choices :)

Bad PR

An Asda driver has sullied the companies name after he refused to help a pregnant mother carry over £200's worth of shopping up two flights of stairs.

To make matters worse, to apologise for this appalling behaviour, Asda then sent Amy Natasha Botten, who is 20 weeks pregnant, a bottle of champagne. Oh Asda, what are you doing?

Amy, 20, who is expecting her second child, was taken back by her treatment so she decided to start filming her experience. In the clip you can tell she is struggling and her young son can be heard crying in the background.

In the video, Amy asks the delivery driver if he can help her out, to which he replies ‘I’d rather not.’

When she shared her experience on Facebook, she posted ‘This shouldn’t be happening to anyone, bad health, lonely and elderly, disabled, pregnant!! It should NOT BE HAPPENING. ‘It’s called HOME delivery.’

An Asda spokesperson said to Metro.co.uk “‘We always try to offer our customers great service but clearly we got it wrong on this occasion and we are truly sorry.”

Another supermarket chain to hit the headlines negatively this week is Tesco, with news today stating that they have been fined £16.4 million over the major cyber-attack that hit their systems two years ago.

It has been revealed that they received the huge penalty following the verdict from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) that they failed to exercise due skill, care and diligence in protecting account holders.

During the attack in November 2016, a total of £2.26 million was stolen in just 48 hours, with deficiencies in their financial crime controls and operations coming to light.

Mark Steward, the FCA’s executive director of enforcement and market oversight, said:

‘The fine the FCA imposed on Tesco Bank today reflects the fact that the FCA has no tolerance for banks that fail to protect customers from foreseeable risks. ‘In this case, the attack was the subject of a very specific warning that Tesco Bank did not properly address until after the attack started.”

Good PR

I love Cat Protection for a number of reasons (they do look after my favourite animal after all) but they’ve just introduced a new scheme which makes me adore them even more.

Leaving an abusive partner is an incredibly difficult and brave feat to do and Cat Protection has introduced ‘Paws Protect’ to try and help in any way they possibly can.

The scheme would allow those who need to escape a violent partner to put their cat into temporary foster care so that they can leave without being concerned for the welfare of their beloved pet.

Abusive partners can use pets, such as cats, as leverage to make their partners stay in the hostile relationship, sometimes with them even threatening to harm the animal.

Paws Protect hope that their cat foster care will help those who find themselves in this awful situation.

A spokesperson for Cat Protection said to the Metro:

‘Paws Protect is growing and expanding so we wanted to spread the word to be able to help more people and more cats. Referrals to Paws Protect can be made by owners or via support workers, social workers or the police and last year, we received over 100 referrals. We provide confidential cat fostering until the owners are safely in new accommodation.’