Good day to all of you who travel in the land of Good and Bad PR. I am back for another look at news and comms campaigns from the past seven days and I bring some exciting news as well; I am moving into the digital era. There is soon to be a TikTok version of this very column.

I should warn you. I have a Standard Definition face in what is sadly a 4k era. Onwards.

Move over snaps of reality TV stars cavorting around and hitting the front pages of national newspapers, there’s a new star in town — it is your CTO.

Cyber incidents replace Brexit and bum-implant horrors in the news agenda

Cyber “incidents” (trademark pending via M&S) are everywhere in the news right now. It is time to dust off your CTO, get them media trained and flop them out onto the unsuspecting News at 10 interview desk

M&S have been widely praised for how it handled the recent incident. Co-op, not so much. This week, it was the turn of Peter Green Chilled as it became not-so-chilled as a result of a cyber-attack on its tech. It affected the supply chain to the likes of Tesco, Aldo and Sainsburys.

A day later, HSBC showed the kind of fantastic strategic communications that we have all come to love and expect from such a global PR powerhouse (and bank). Its CEO talked about the fear of cyber-attacks keeping him awake at night. This got some major write ups and reinforced just how seriously the c-suite at big companies are taking the threats.

It also gave the banking industry the chance to talk up just how much they were all spending to repel and deter attacks. A strong and shrewd comms move by HSBC, and this is why it wins my first good PR of the week.

Beige goods theft will not stop the PR machine that is Greggs

As regular readers will know, I love Greggs and I don’t just mean its beige savoury snacks sent from heaven. As a business it is one of the most significant jewels in the British business crown, and its communications team leads the way.

The brand has an issue with shoplifting. It is an issue that affects the entire retail space, not just Greggs.

So many items were being pilfered from the ready-to-go section, and it has become so much of an issue that it has moved the section safely behind the counter.

The comms positioning was spot on. Rather than moan about a small sub-section of its (non-paying) customer base being thieving so and so’s, it positioned it as a way to keep its staff safe and secure.

The fewer opportunities that thieves have to take goodies, the less need there would be for staff to attempt to stop it and put themselves at risk. Great comms by Greggs, as ever, and a massive good PR from me.

Lyons drops howler at female empowerment conference

I think that the Northern Ireland Unionist’s are using the Police Chief character from Scottish TV comedy Scot Squad as the basis for its media training. Gordon Lyons is the NI parliament communities minister. In his address to those attending a female empowerment conference last week, he said that the “good-looking” attendees had been seated at the front. Gasp.

Gordon Bennett more like! What a mistake to make. To make it worse, maybe just in my mind, his apology statement tried to add context as to why he said it, rather than just issuing a heart-felt mea culpa that simply held his hands up. He tried to Tefal the blame over to an event host.

Bad PR for the Northern Irish MP.

Starmer, Rayner and Reeves have had a tough week but surely Reform not needed

Sticking with the bad political PR theme, and it has been a tough week (some may argue, reign so far) for our intrepid Labour threesome. Everyone’s favourite millionaire lady-of-the-people Angela Rayner, had a memo leaked in which she suggested the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves should consider wealth tax rises.

“Give the people what they want”, is the line I imagine she sang down the phone on her voice-note to Reeves. She looks like the voice-note type.

The Labour PR machine laughed it off as being just one of those normal things that goes on between ministers when in power. Ok.

Then Reeves was hit with the negative media effect of the inflation rate rising, as household bills, energy costs and council tax increases started to bite. This time the Labour PR team fell back on the “we need to stabilise the economy after them pesky Tories ruined it” line that is now nearly a year old.

Finally, Starmer tried to lean into his inner Farage with his “island of strangers” speech around immigration levels. This didn’t work. Instead, it alienated some of his own MPs whilst convincing absolutely nobody in the Reform voting camp that he was as tough on immigration as their poster-boy Farage would be. No replies from the Labour PR team about that one.

How can Labour deal with Farage and his gammon-army of followers? Dare I suggest they take a leaf out of the Tory playbook of 2019 and just don’t acknowledge or talk about him at all? Up until the Tories did that, Farage was in the media every day, fighting back against Bozza. As soon as Bozza took the oxygen of free publicity away, the Farage fire died down.

Chasing Reform votes is never going to work for Starmer and, quite frankly, he is not of the character to ever be able to do that. The only person in the Labour Party, in my opinion, who could ever stand a chance of doing that is our memo sending hero, Angela Rayner. She has the kind of candid approach that could work in the be-more-Trump-esque world of Farage.

Bad PR for the Labour machine.

Diamonds are a girl’s best friend, if they pick them themselves

Let’s get back to something far more positive, a PR win from one of our own in the world of Digital PR. Step forward the ever impressive and PRmoment Award winning Bottled Imagination and its campaign for Diamonds Factory.

The duo got the message out, to all and sundry, that there is a rise in the art of “quiet proposals”. I had never heard of that term either, but then again, I am hideously old. This is where the couple choose the engagement ring together, and the element of surprise is removed.

Bottled Imagination supplied Diamond Factory case studies, expert commentary, statistics and a media sensation was born. The global coverage is nothing short of spectacular. A huge PR win for those involved and I doff my cap to you all.

Thanks to Alan S Morrison for the story suggestions, as ever.