10 Yetis Examples of Good and Bad PR - Monday 23rd July 2018

We've got Emily Price interning with us this week, and she's written a fantastic good and bad PR today for y'all to read. Enjoy...

Good PR

With many forfeits decided amongst the team, depending on their match results in Russia, the French players stuck to their word, whether it was Giroud or Fekir shaving their heads or Matuidi cycling from Paris to Turin. If you're anything like me, I would have picked something less extravagant if I thought we actually had a chance of winning!

With ‘one rule’ from his wife – to at least wait until after their new born son’s baptism - Giroud kept his promise and took a moment away from his holiday to reveal his freshly shaved head. It looks good if you ask me!

This isn’t the only instance where footballers taking part in the World Cup stuck to their word. Ahead of England V Sweden, Zlatan Ibrahimavoc uploaded an image of him and David Beckham playing together from years gone by to place a wager: if England won Zlatan would buy Beckham dinner anywhere in the world, if Beckham won he would buy Zlatan whatever he wanted. Great banter and football fans loved it!

Bad PR

14-year old Lewis Bailey was extremely upset when he was banned from performing his drag act at Castle High School and Visual Arts College (Dudley). The school claim that it is illegal for under 18’s to take part in drag act competitions – which may well be the case, but it’s just a school talent show! His mother Natalie has taken great offence to this and believes that the school is lying about these laws for their own agenda.

The principal stands by the decision and says “It is not appropriate for young people to perform drag acts.” Lewis comes back at this comment very disheartened saying “I think the real reason is they don’t accept me for who I am.” The school is seen to be being very judgemental in this scenario and it has knocked the young boy’s confidence to zero.

Lewis got his inspiration from the extravagant TV series RuPaul’s Drag Race, which is a successful American reality show that features diverse drag queens which compete for a large cash prize.

The ban came one day before the show. Something tells me they were fully aware of Lewis’ act for the talent show and left it this late to tell him of their decision to avoid the backlash that would come with it. They clearly didn’t expect the country to rally behind Lewis as much as we are!

Surely, talent is talent in any way shape or form. The principle continues “Castle is an inclusive school that celebrates diversity – we made the decision that it was not age appropriate for either the learner and for the intended audience, his peer group, for Lewis to appear as a ‘drag act.” This is an on-going issue that Lewis and his mother are still dealing with and hope that this makes schools realise (not just Castle High School, but all) that we, as a nation, need to be encouraging children to express themselves.

A little good PR to the story though, the guys at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern have extended an invitation to Lewis for him to perform when he's old enough at their venue.