Fear not dearest reader, this column is safe from the AWS disaster. I write it using quill and parchment, and then it is dispatched, via a specially trained dove, to those in charge of editing out my misquakes.

Welcome to another week of PR hits and misses.

AWS goes down causing parents and graphic designers to rejoice

There can only be one winner for the first and most important bad PR of the week, Amazon Web Services, which triggered mayhem when its platform went down.

Snapchat filters were no more, Roblox and Fortnight games whirred to a halt, and — in good news for trained graphic designers — Canva also went down, making the crayon-crew relevant and in demand again.

This also triggered a serious and potentially damaging conversation for Amazon about its global dominance of the tech-hosting world. The timing of things like this are never going to be good, but it came just one day after the company spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on prime time ads during arguably the biggest football game of the season; The Manchester Reds versus the Reds of Liverpool.

These very same ads talked about everything that Amazon powers around the globe, referencing the likes of Snapchat. Fast forward 12 hours and, ouch. Bad PR for Bezos and his hosting machinery.

Hell hath no fury like a journo family scorned

The AA press office was probably having a quiet-ish start to the week, and then along came my good buddy, Richard Alvin, the owner of the Business Matters and ruined their calm.

What did they do? Well, they got outed for allegedly attempting to overcharge legacy customers. The customers in question were Richard's own parents.

He happened to be at their house when the renewal letter arrived and upon reading it, he sensed a red flag. A dollop of internet sleuthing later and he discovered that his parents, who have been AA customers for 64 years, were being charged over £120 more than someone who was coming to the recovery brand for the first time.

The AA issued a generic statement, which is probably the best it could do in the face of such adversity. A quick Google around this subject and you will find forum after forum talking about the tactic, and it seems The AA is not alone.

Bad PR for the AA and yet great PR for Richard and Business Matters.

Train trade union goes off the rails and the Tory media love it

Is anyone surprised to have read the screaming headlines about the trade union bosses who stand accused of spending thousands on an all-expenses-paid trip to Vegas in 2022.

It was senior members of the Transport Salaried Staff Association who are alleged to have expensed to the max. The headlines were scathing and the articles are full of detailed tales of their opulent trip.

As I read through the story I could not help but feel that it had become fairly sensationalised by certain elements of the media, and two words made the penny drop. Those two words: “Mick Lynch”.

He had nothing to do with the story, or even the trade union in question, yet his name was dragged into it by his union and the TSSA collectively being at the forefront of the strike action in 2022. And there we have it, dearest comms world, the Conservative leaning media saw it as an opportunity to tarnish the overall reputation of the trade union industry.

Undoubtedly bad PR for the TSSA (who said in a statement that all of these shenanigans have now been dealt with) but also a slight side-eye to whichever lobbyist amplified the story in the hope of punishing the UK trade union sector.

Double decker trains heading to the UK, Labour misses it

Sticking with the train theme and Eurostar gets a gold medal for its comms this week. It has announced that it has placed an order for up to 50 new, double decker trains to run through its tunnels.

It also means further investment in its London depot which is great for the local economy. Commentators have speculated that the increase in capacity could also mean cheaper tickets, so it is, all-in-all, a win-win news piece.

What was lacking you ask? A positive comment from anyone in the Labour cabinet about what a great move this is for the UK. It is another glaring example of just how broken the Labour comms machine is, that they could not get themselves aligned in any way to the positive news story.

It may well have had very little to do with the Labour government, but a positive quote from someone over there would have made its way into the associated media coverage.

Great PR for Eurostar.

Chocolate makers take the biscuit

What a strange week for the makers of Penguin and Club biscuits. Both brands can now no longer class the biscuits as chocolate. Instead, they are to describe them as “chocolate flavoured”. Kind of ruins the Club biscuit marketing jingle doesn’t it.

Chocolate has become spenny. So much so that the makers of the bars needed to find a cheaper alternative to their main ingredient. Out goes chocolate beans, in comes a chocolate flavoured coating.

The obvious criticism is that the brands could easily take the financial hit and keep using chocolate, but they have shareholders to protect and consumers that won’t tolerate price rises right now, so it is our tastebuds that will suffer.

“If you like a lot of chocolate on your biscuit… tough”. Bad PR for both brands.

JCB digs up positive headlines

Regular readers will know that I love and admire JCB. For me they represent the epitome of what global success should look like. It seems to do business in the right way and I know that it looks after its workforce because of past gestures to my own mum and dad, when my mum worked in its factory in Rochester.

This week, whilst it celebrated its 80th birthday. it also announced a £100m investment in its HQ and the mass media loved it. The brand wanted to reinforce its commitment to British industry and the local economy.

Comms done fantastically well and a perfect example of how to get mainstream coverage for a birthday celebration.

Gorillas not in the missed category

Fantastic crisis comms PR by the Bristol Zoological Society. The back-story: Some of those people who make a fortune on TikTok and Instagram by trespassing into closed or abandoned buildings caused a right stink two weeks ago.

In fact, I nearly fell for their misinformation and was going to give BZS a bad PR gong for the lonely gorilla story that was being pedalled. I am glad I held off.

The individuals in question, who tend to call themselves urban explorers, broke into BZS grounds (a former zoo) and released videos saying that the gorillas were lonely and abandoned.

The tabloid and online clickbait media loved the story and ran with the “are these the world’s loneliest gorilla’s” headlines. BZS was in a sticky situation.

They fronted up perfectly via two of the gorilla carers who look after the animals, appearing on a BZS-owned media platform. The keepers calmly but passionately explained that the gorillas are fine, they much prefer the calm of their empty surroundings and were in fact waiting to be moved into a bigger, better and more engaging set of surroundings.

I particularly liked the detail the carers gave that if a gorilla did smile, as the urban explorers had said they should, then it was most likely a sign of aggression and a neutral looking face is a strong sign of gorilla relaxation and contentment.

Bad PR for urban explorers. Great recovery PR work by the Bristol Zoological Society.

Got it right or wrong, you know where to find me (being calm and neutral in a West Country former Zoo). Thanks to Alan S Morrison and Richard Alvin for their story spotting this week.