Good and Bad PR: GB News and IKEA are the baddies, the goodies are Nicholas Watt, the public and Boris

It’s coming home right? Well, if you are an England fan that is. What a week it has been, lots of controversy, lots of shade being thrown and lots of fantastic drama - everything a weekly Good and Bad PR columnist could wish for.

Bad PR

GB News

GB News launched this week and whilst the leftie-Patagonia-clad warriors of Twitter queued up from the off to put the boot in, the world of Muggles seemed to actually like it. Within a day of being on air though, the big brands caught wind of a media opportunity and one by one, ironically, led by the fruity, liver-ruining, cider brand Kopparberg, they all declared to never flog their wares on such a controversial channel.

GB News supremo Andrew Neil put up a stoic defence, but it still doesn’t hide it from a tricky start and also being the winner of this week’s first Bad PR.

IKEA

Neil did help us identify the second of this week’s Bad PR though, by berating one of the brands that pulled out of GB News ads, IKEA. The Swedish flat-pack genius got itself into a hell of a mess via its French division. It was this week found guilty of using private detectives and some very shady tactics to try and get personal information on some of its more troublesome staff. Big fines and suspended sentences were handed out by the French courts to senior IKEA staff and it has left a small blemish on what everyone thought was a beautiful, wholesome, global brand.

Good PR

Nicholas Watt

Nicholas Watt offa BBC fame gets Good PR this week. Whatever the rivalry that goes on between PR and media lands, I think we can all agree that we have each-other’s back. The pictures showing the great-unwashed anti-lockdown muggles rounding on him outside of parliament were distressing to watch. Watt handled it with dignity and huge amounts of control. The situation could have easily escalated into something far more violent and he deserves all of the credit that he is getting this week. Nice one sir.

The general public

I get many a DM asking me what my problem is with the general public and I honestly don’t have one, I am just encouraged in this article to focus on the best and worst examples of PR situations and the public are often involved in this.

To show there is no bias though, my second Good PR goes to the story of the twins who got ambushed by a crocodile in Mexico. As the prehistoric-looking creature began death rolling Twin One (I have twins myself and find it much easier to refer to them as Twin One and Twin Two), Twin Two came wading in and Paul Hogan’s its ass. Twin One ended up in an induced coma and Twin Two had bite-related injuries. Both are on the mend now though.

This is a great story and if they play this correctly (and should they be so inclined) this could result in a great number of media options when they return home from their travels. Bad PR for crocodiles obviously, but brilliant PR for the Twins and also the fighting spirit of UK Citizens.

Boris Johnson

Talking of the fighting spirit of us Brits, how’s about another nod to Boris who (again, much to the despair of the Twitter masses) continues to rise in the opinion polls, this time thank to a post-Brexit trade deal with Australia.

Yes, we may now be flooded with Australian beef and even more Hardys wine but it is, overall, a huge positive step for post-Brexit Britain and yet another reason why Boris is seemingly indestructible in the polls. An overall positive piece in The Atlantic at the weekend about our crazy-haired leader capped off a great week for him on the PR front.

Hit me with your moaning, or stories that you have spotted, over on The Twitter, @10Yetis.

Written by Andy Barr, owner of 10 Yetis Digital. Seen any good or bad PR lately? Abuse and contradictory points welcomed over on The Twitter @10Yetis or andy@10Yetis.co.uk on email