10 Yetis Examples of Good and Bad PR - Monday 24th June 2019

Another week another fantastic intern. This week we have Deniz Gun joining us from a local grammar school, Sir Thomas Rich's and he's had a go at this week's good and bad PR for you to have a read of... enjoy!

Good PR

“6 continents. 18 countries. 80 days. One extraordinary adventure.”

Airbnb is offering a once-in-a-lifetime trip that boasts 18 countries in six continents in under 12 weeks where you’ll get to explore the culture and traditions of medieval Europe, the former Soviet Union, eastern Africa, the Middle East, northern and southern Asia, the South Pacific, the Americas, and a Nordic island.

For just £4000, accommodation, transportation, meals and drinks are included, it’s not a bad deal for just £50 a day.

So what’s the catch? Well there are none… technically. Except that there are only six places available and two of them have all ready been taken when tickets first went on sale on July 20^th. But don't worry because the four remaining spots will be available on the 26^th June and 1^st July at 2pm of which Airbnb are allocating 2 spots on each day.

Destinations in Europe range from the ancient cities of Uzbekistan to the land of pharaohs in Egypt, and from the lush rainforests of Japan to the quiet landscapes of Bhutan in Asia. The twelve-week trip ends in Iceland before returning to London.

Airbnb states that at every stop of this voyage you’ll be welcomed into the culture and traditions of each destination by the people who live there. Over 50 local hosts will take you to the must-see sites, as well as a little off the beaten path - they’ll make sure you see and do so much that all you’ll be wishing for is more time.

“All you have to do is make sure you have enough empty pages in your passport, buy a round trip ticket to and from London, and get on that first flight.” - Airbnb

The trip, organised by Airbnb, is also supported by the Malala Fund founded by Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani activist for female education and the youngest Nobel Prize laureate, where the money paid towards the experience will go to the charity, which helps young girls get free and safe education.

“There is no doubt that our customers expect us to act and this change signifies a huge step away from our reliance on plastic.”

From today Boots will become the first British pharmacy to replace plastic carrier bags with brown unbleached paper bag, hoping that the change will help remove up to 900 tonnes of plastic from its stores each year. 53 Boots stores nationwide have started to ditch these plastic bags, but it will expand to the full 2,485 stores by early 2020.

Boots explained how plastic waste is undoubtedly one of the most important issues around the world today, with TV shows like Blue Planet highlighting the effects of plastic pollution.

The new Boots bags are made from unbleached FSC certified recycled brown paper, which is printed with water-based inks so the bags can be easily recycled at home. Sourced and manufactured in the UK, the bags display the On-Pack Recycling Label (OPRL) standard, which helps consumers to recycle correctly and more often.

The bags will be the same price you would of paid for the plastic ones, however, Boots have said all profits will be donated to their long-term charity partner BBC Children in Need to support disadvantaged children across the UK.

Claire Hoyle, Commercial Director at BBC Children in Need commented: “We’re incredibly grateful to Boots for their continued support. The money raised will go to make a positive, lasting difference to disadvantaged children and young people in communities across the UK.”

Bad PR

"It's outrageous. It's just encouraging kids and adults to gorge on sugar-filled snacks."

Marks & Spencer have been under fire lately for being caught surrounding self-service tills with sugary sweets and snacks.

Despite the new law where supermarkets are required to ban “guilt-lanes” of sweets and chocolates near checkouts as part of the Government’s plan to combat child obesity, M&S have continued to take advantage of consumer’s impulse buying in order to increase market share and profit.

Claire Hughes, Head of Nutrition & Science for Marks & Spencer, stated on their website back in 2016 that “M&S has had a dedicated health strategy in place focusing on supporting our customers to make healthier product and dietary choices. We are continuing to deliver the strategy through innovative healthy food product ranges as well as appropriate product labelling, reformulation and targeted customer communication.“

However, the popular supermarket seems to have taken a step back in supporting their customers to make better dietary choices.

It’s not the first time M&S have been under fire for it’s controversial “healthier” products. Back in 2015, consumers found out that the supermarkets ready meals contained double as much sugar as a can of Coca Cola, with 60g of sugar in its sweet and sour chicken dish. A huge amount when compared to the recommended daily intake of 30g for an average adult.

Obesity has become a major global health crisis and experts believe that it will continue to rise in the coming years. About 3.4 million people die from obesity every year. It increases the risks of heart diseases, diabetes, certain types of cancer, and reduces your lifespan.

Not only has this sparked flames amongst the public, but organisations such as The Children’s Food Campaign, which aims to improve young people’s well-being via good food & food education in schools, protecting children from junk food marketing, and clear food labelling, have also unveiled their anger; sarcastically stating, “this is what retailer 'responsibility' currently looks like.”

According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the UK is the 6^th most obese country in the world where 26.9% of the adult population is obese.

"McDonald’s latest dumb idea: replacing the plastic lids on McFlurry’s but still keeping plastic spoons."

McDonald's has announced that it will be removing plastic lids from its McFlurry packaging in all UK restaurants from September. It will also stop using single-use plastic for its salad options, as part of an overhaul to the packaging of its UK menu.

McDonald's said the changes will reduce plastic waste by a total of 485 metric tonnes every year - 383 of which will come from McFlurry packaging alone, equivalent to nearly 200 African Elephants. This represents a huge step in the right direction to tackling plastic waste and pollution.

Plastic has become a huge topic this year in the UK due to the disaster it’s been causing to the environment and the world’s nature. Sir David Attenborough has described plastic pollution as an “unfolding catastrophe”.

Despite McDonald’s step to remove plastic lids from its McFlurry ice cream desserts as part of a push to be more environmentally friendly, customers have pointed out the fact that they have left the non-recyclable plastic spoon in the product. This sparked fury towards the American fast food company as consumers have complained that the plastic spoon could easily be replaced by a wooden one. However, McDonalds have stated that the hollow plastic spoon is an essential part in making the ice-cream as it attaches to the machine that mixes it, but they have promised to get rid of them soon.

McDonald’s have also replaced its plastic straws with paper ones following the government's proposal to ban plastic straws and cotton buds in England.

However, while a step in the right direction for the environment, many consumers have also complained that they can no longer enjoy their drinks, especially milkshakes, and a petition has been made to bring back the plastic straws at McDonald’s. They just can't win.