Good and Bad PR: Fish and chips, whale poo and Iceland all have something in common in this week’s PR round-up

Here I am again. As always, I try to focus on the slightly lighter side of the news and avoid the dark stuff so, despite it being everywhere, no Richard Gadd story from me, other than to acknowledge and praise the amazing story he has told on Netflix, and I am completely avoiding the Rwanda flights topic once again.

Unexpected item found near the finish line

The B-Team of the ambulance world, St John, received a load of positive coverage this week for saving the life of a supermarket boss. Richard Walker of Iceland fame collapsed with suspected heatstroke just one mile from the finish line of the London Marathon.

He woke up to medics covering him in ice to bring his temperature down. Before you could say “human margarita”, the papers had picked up on the story and the UK media loved it.

(Foil) blanket coverage has hopefully given St John’s Ambulance a welcome financial boost from donations. It should also give its staff, who are often in the shadow of their more high profile NHS Ambulance service colleagues, a welcome boost in terms of showcasing the fantastic work that they do.

Yam Yam estate is the toughest to live in, in Britain

Birmingham, famous for its Balti, Broad St and Brummy accent now has a new accolade. It has the strictest housing estate in Britain, apparently.

Calthorpe Estate covers Edgbaston Village, Edgbaston Medical Quarter and Edgbaston First and is run by the Principle Estate Management company. It has emerged that the estate has a 32 page guidebook on the rules to living in the estate.

The guidebook stems from the 18th century and the company enforcing it say that it helps the area retain its charm. The rules cover everything from not being able to work from home through to fines for the wrong-coloured front door or gate.

The media loves a story about twee Britain and the residents of Calthorpe Estate will have enjoyed its 15 minutes of fame.

10/1 These are the best fish and chips in Britain

The digital PR brigade were in full voice over the last few days. I can say what I want, really, as they are all at Brighton SEO 24 this week.

Once again showing that relevance in PR really does matter, this week Betway revealed the best, checks notes, fish and chip shops in Britain. Regardless of the why and how, the coverage was brilliant. I took to Ahrefs to have a goosey gander at the impact and it was strong.

I thought the stories would point to a Fish and Chip landing page index on the Betway site, but no, the middleman was cut out and it went straight to a Casino landing page. Putting my sullen tone to one side for a moment, it is Great PR for Betway and its Outreach Ninjas.

Telegraph bathes in content marketing hit

If the previous story was an example of a strong content marketing with little relevance, this next story is an interesting sign of the future of content campaigns.

The Telegraph’s travel section did its own content campaign this week around the best and worst cities in Britain to visit for a short break. Rather than just aggregate TripAdvisor and alike, as so many of us do for these stories, it actually had 25 different factors that it took into account.

Transport, green spaces, hospitality, culture and heritage were all taken into account. It was a really meaty piece of work and, as you would expect from some of the world’s best writers, beautiful to read.

The Telegraph’s own comms machine kicked into force and the index started getting picked up outside of its own media landscape and across other media titles. Great PR for The Telegraph. Oh and by the way, Bath came top and Carlisle are still sulking about taking the bottom spot.

Jizzy rascals create shit storm to escape death

Sea creatures are taking a page out of the UK water companies’ playbook and are pumping poo into the sea to escape their issues.

Team Animal Botherers have discovered that Sperm whales are using clouds of their own poo to escape attacks from orcas. No, really. Scientists are not sure if it is a deliberate ploy or if the poo leaks out due to fear. Fair enough to be honest. I too would shit myself if an Orca came charging at me.

The murder-dolphins (I didn’t know that orca’s were just massive multi-coloured dolphins until recently) love a spermy snack and the newly spotted form of defence is serving them well.

Bad PR for massive dolphins, good, distracting PR, for UK water companies.

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

or via email at andy@10Yetis.co.uk