Good and Bad PR: Forest Green Rovers go neon, Elvis lovers get shook up and Sylvanian Families is not amused

Well, we have done it, and let me be the first to congratulate everyone involved. We have reached the mighty PRMoment summer break, with everything still intact. You have a whole two weeks off from my weekly waffle, don’t be too sad, I shall return.

Let’s get about it.

Forest Green Rovers new kit is not what the Dr ordered, but still a great week for them

The last time I mentioned Dale Vince, the owner of Forest Green Rovers, I got messages from his Patagonia-wearing army of super fans telling me how wrong I was. Compared to previous communities that I have upset via this column, I was not concerned. 

This time though, I have nothing but praise for the poster-boy of the eco-community. Two big stories put his football club on the map to a global audience. The first was a GP practice announcing that it would prescribe tickets to see Forest Green Rovers to try and treat depression. There are a whole host of jokes that I could make about this not working for Man Utd or Everton fans, but I won’t stoop to such lows.

This first story reached such a peak of popularity that it started to attract criticism and “backlash” from certain communities for being a waste of NHS cash (amongst other things). If they had read the details, they would have realised it wasn’t costing them anything as Saint Dale donated the tickets for free.

The second fantastic story, in the same week, was the unveiling of the new third kit. It is a doozy. Neon pink and leopard print patterns. It may not have secured quite as much coverage as the GP story, but it still got coverage in a large swathe of the national and sporting media. It is eye-catching to say the least.

If these stories had been over two weeks, Sir Dale of Vince would have got two good PR gongs. Instead, he will have to settle for the much sought after first good PR of this week.

I hope this calms all the meat-hating community down and makes them realise I have no agenda other than to bring you, my dearest readers, an impartial review of the hits and misses of the PR world. Great PR Dale, and very well played.

Elvis fans all shook up by “misleading” concert

Elvis Presley fans wanted a little less conversation and a little more action please, from a newly launched Elvis experience. Some fans paid up to £300, thinking they were going to see a regenerated Elvis in a holographic format. Suspicious minds would have thought twice about buying tickets based on such a promise without first knowing if it was based on fact.

It wasn’t a holographic show, but more a case of someone pressing play and a video of sorts being shown. Attendees were left with a feeling best described as travelling to a heartbreak hotel. A load of muggles got in touch with the media to complain about the organisers and ask questions such as; are you the devil in disguise?

The company behind the experience is Layered Reality, the company behind the experience, wins max points from me for its defensive line of: "We ultimately took the creative decision not to mimic Elvis's performances”. The negative reviews are now seeing tickets sent back to the organisers, marked return to sender.

Stories like this are always on my mind, and I am on the hunt for something similar. Let’s move on before I get in trouble with my long-suffering editor. Bad PR for Layered Reality.

Girl Guides win media plaudits for moving with the times

The Girl Guides demonstrated that it is down with the kids by launching a whopping 72 new badges for its communities, and global media loved the story.

The new badges involve phrases that I am not totally across, such as “fandoms” and “guiding sparkle”. Let’s not let that dampen the positive coverage though. It was a beautiful story in an otherwise murky week of societal issues. I think anything that gets kids away from social media platforms and out doing something positive and fun with their mates should be truly applauded.

This is only the second set of new badges that have been launched since the Girl Guides began over 110 years ago. Over 11,000 girls had a go at testing the new badges, and the resulting media coverage shows that process really worked. I very much hope that the acting CEO now gets the full-time gig as she truly deserves it. Great PR for the Girl Guides.

Sylvanian Families’ has sense of humour failure

TikTok is awash with brand hatchet jobs by muggles with too much time on their hands. Most brands just smile and nod and take it for what it is, a backhanded compliment via a short-lived social-media moment.

Not the Japanese makers of Sylvanian Families though, it has had enough. Thea Von Engelbrechten set up a parody account called “Sylvanian Drama”. The furry little toys get up to all sorts of adult drama and it has amassed 2.5m followers. It is so popular that even this very old, and very tired, PR man has seen it.

Instead of the brand trying to engage positively with the account and maybe use it to become a bit more current, it whacked in a heavy-handed legal letter. The toy company has ignored the fact the account has worked with the likes of Burberry, Hilton and Netflix for paid placements and is saying it has caused “irreparable injury” to its street cred.

Bad PR for the Japanese owners of the brand. It could have navigated through this and back to a resurgence in the popularity of its toys. The legal letter has turned a whole community against it. I might dust off my old Weebles and see if I can get a sponsorship deal out of Nike by setting up a parody account.

Unions are beyond parody thanks to hotel build revelations

Regular readers will know all about my collective opinion on Trade Unions, as I myself have had some colourful experiences that I won’t mention here.

This is why I was in no way surprised when I saw the stories this week about the shenanigans that a former Unite Union boss stands accused of around the building of a new trade union hotel.

You do have to acknowledge the reputation repair work being undertaken by Sharon Graham, the new general secretary of Unite. She has not been ducking the awkward questions but it is the comms equivalent of trying to push a runny poo up a hill.

It is hard to pinpoint when the public trust in Trade Unions began eroding, but I think a starting point must be the Tony Blair era. Stories like the hotel one this week will do nothing to rebuild that trust, although Graham is fighting hard to try. It needs a concerted and strategic communications campaign, that focusses purely on the good that it does for workers, but I fear the unions are now too fragmented for that to ever happen, and one union working in isolation won’t cut it.

Bad PR for Trade Unions as a whole.

Gymshark gets strange positive PR of the week

A few of you sent this to me as a strange story and I will admit, my own spidey senses tingled as I read it.

A gym-goer accused a Wetherspoons of kicking her out for not covering herself up after she went there for a post-gym, erm recovery alcopop in a gym bra and gym shorts. Spoons firmly deny that she was kicked out. It claims that she was merely asked to zip up her gym cardigan.

Whatever the truth may be, I am not really bothered. She left the pub.

Gymshark features heavily in the story and the resulting coverage drove visitors to either a direct Gymshark page via an affiliate link, or to a Gymshark overview page on the news media sites.

The story even went into the detail of how much the Gymshark top cost, again, a strange addition. I don’t know if Gymshark works with 72Point/SWNS, but I would not be surprised if they did as both Gymshark and 72Point etc are leaders at what they do.

Enough of you flagged this for me to feel the need to shine the digital PR light (Commissioner Gordon style) into the sky so Bat-Bono Rofe can sweep in and investigate fully. Good PR for Gymshark’s sports bra.

Team Science gets back into the positive story game

Regular readers will know that I end every column with some pointless science of the week. It is usually a far-off university or medical team wasting time on something that no one cares about (see the last few columns for examples).

This week though, the University of Birmingham has smashed it out of the park and restored my faith in the lab-coat-clad-crew. It has been checking out those off-the-shelf (and usually internet based) medical self-testing kits and found a chunk of them kick back false results.

The off-the-shelf medical testing industry is huge and growing fast. As with every industry that grows quickly, there are rogues that slip through the net and the research by the University of Birmingham is invaluable.

Muggles are turning to the kits out of desperation, concerns about NHS delays and their own nervousness and embarrassment of the illness they think they have. This research serves as a great reminder that the best course of action is to always go and speak to a trained medical practitioner.

The NHS may do many things that people don’t like or support, but their front-line staff don’t judge you. Stop buying off-the-shelf testing kits for serious illnesses and get to your local GP or chemist.

Great PR by the University of Birmingham scientists and the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Birmingham Biomedical Research Centre who funded it.

Have a great two weeks off kids. Thanks to Alan S Morrison for his story spotting as ever and to all 37 of you who sent me, or commented to me about, the Dale Vince story! A new record.