10 Yetis Examples of Good and Bad PR – Monday 29th July 2019

Morning PR peeps - Lucy's written up another fantastic good and bad PR for you, so let's jump straight in...

Good PR

Another week, another fast fashion story, however this one features amongst the good PR stories. Let’s all praise PrettyLittleThing…

After a twitter user ended up with a splash of red wine down her white jumpsuit after a day at the races, her friends saved the day... by throwing more wine over it.

The tweet showing their creation went viral, with people loving it so much that online fast fashion retailer, PrettyLittleThing, recreated it for customers to buy. Fast fashion really does work fast!

The tie dye high neck jumpsuit costs just £25, leaving you with plenty to spare on a glass of red wine that you don’t have to throw over your clothes. The product listing shows the model wearing the jumpsuit and also the picture of its inspiration, before and after dousing the outfit in red wine.

Fans loved the addition to the brand’s festival line and due to the vial nature of the tweet, the product was snapped up quickly by shoppers, signalling a great success for PrettyLittleThing. The brand also gained notable recognition for listening to their customers and creating what the public wanted.

Another PR success story this week is the response by McDonald’s to a change.org petition persuading the restaurant chain (and others) to stop handing out plastic toys in their happy meals. The petition was created by Ella and Caitlin, aged 9 and 7, who rightly noted that the plastic toys are only played with briefly before they are discarded or thrown away.

At many locations in the UK, McDonald’s have already begun to scale back on its plastic distribution, offering alternatives such as board games and soft toys. The brand is trialling a variety of happy meal toys and is awaiting responses from its consumers in order to gauge which products were the most popular and should therefore be rolled out.

The fast food giant is amongst many other global brands being encouraged to adapt their practices to appear more environmentally conscious amid the growing public response towards protecting the environment. The chain has previously switched to paper straws over plastic straws and has pledged to reduce their plastic consumption further throughout the year.

P&G have rebranded their popular washing up product Fairy to Fair in a bid to encourage families to talk more openly about LGBTQ+ issues and rights. This comes as part of an initiative to demonstrate the brand’s commitment to supporting the LGBTQ+ community.

In addition to the name change, the product also features a rainbow coloured logo as a celebration of pride and is available for consumers to purchase in support of The Albert Kennedy Trust, a charity supporting you and homeless LGBTQ individuals.

By stimulating conversations within households, P&G are aiming to raise the bar for equality within the gay community. Addressing prevalent social issues and appealing to wider markets highlights the brand’s willingness to do good, however this PR success could also be seen as playing to a social media agenda that is dominated by single issue groups.

Bad PR

Customers have accused popular fashion brand Forever 21 of fat shaming after sending out low-carbohydrate Atkins diet bars and weight loss programmes with its orders.

Tweets criticising this poor decision have gone viral, with users branding the freebies as ‘degrading’ and promoting eating disorders. Many users also claimed that the diet bars were only sent out with plus sized clothing orders. The high street fashion brand has since apologised, stating that they did not mean to cause offense and that they sent out the bars to customers of all sizes.

The programme that supplied the bars, Atkins, issued a statement shortly after, claiming that their bars were to help customers aspire for healthier lives and wellbeing.

This PR gaffe follows a previous blunder made by the brand in December after a black panther inspired sweater was advertised using a white model.