Andy Gray and Richard Keys get this weeks Bad PR award

First up, some interesting news from my new favourite TV show -  Big Fat Gypsy Weddings. Clearly this doesn’t fit into Good or Bad PR, but you may be interested to know that Swanley and his missus Josie from the first episode are now on Twitter @swanleyjoe, tweeting about selling caravans. I kid you not.

Anyway, back to why you're here:

Good PR of the week

- (Face)Book ‘em, Danno

I’m not sure if this is subtle proactive PR by Facebook or not, but news that a gang of teenage burglars have been caught by Gwent police after bragging about ‘merking off’ windows on the social network is a great story (that perhaps could have gone even further) that balances arguments that Facebook is too open.

- For once, the media gives Apple some much-needed coverage

To celebrate the milestone of hitting 10 billion iTunes downloads, Apple has given a British woman a $10k (£6.3k-ish) iTunes Gift Card – to literally thousands of media hits. I know, I know, Apple lovies would class a Steve Jobs fart as breaking news, but this is a great example of taking a business milestone release and making it more newsworthy.

Bad PR of the Week

- Something to Tew over

Once called ‘the most annoying man on the Internet’, Alex Tew has had a tough time making a success of any of his online projects since his Million Dollar Home Page – but hopes his new effort will get him back on track. You can’t doubt Tew’s ability to get coverage off the back of his name. I’ve certainly not seen anything like Do Nothing for 2 Minutes before, but with my business head on, I just can’t see how it’s going to bring in a single penny’s revenue. And it’s dull, beyond belief.

- Offside remarks

One minute, you’re uttering some obviously acceptable and entirely justified (some would say misogynistic) criticisms, the next; you’re the subject of a nationwide effort to discredit your "prejudiced" name.

To summarise, Sky News football commentators Andy Gray and Richard Keys have come under fire – Gray was sacked and Keys resigned – for remarks that some would consider sexist.

Gray and Keys discussed a female assistant referee’s competency off-air, asking the question that will surely haunt the two of them for a long time – “What do women know about the offside rule?”. In the same conversation, as if to acknowledge that they were on dodgy ground, the pair also had a bit of a pop at vice-chairman of West Ham Karen Brady for “complaining about sexism“.

To make matters worse, a video was then released of Gray and Sky reporter Andy Burton, discussing whether or not 25-year-old Sian Massey was “a looker“. Burton was subsequently suspended, too.

Anything that gets compared to Ron Atkinson’s racist outburst in 2004 has to be considered a PR nightmare.

Thanks to Chris White at GameCity, Sophie Baker at Seal PR and freelance PR Jill Alexander for their suggestions this week.

I’d like to take this opportunity to say thanks to all who’ve Tweeted about, emailed regarding or bothered to read the first column entry last week. If you have any examples of either to put up for this column, please tweet me. 

Good and Bad PR is a feature on the blog of PR Agency 10 Yetis.