Dearest public relations community. It has been a fantastic week, not least because I discovered that far more than my family read this column. Thank you for all the story submissions, please keep them up.

The chocolate digestive system is not broken

I am a firm believer that the simpler a campaign is, the better it performs. This first good PR of the week proves my theory to be right. Step forward Taylor Herring and McVities Chocolate Digestives.

To celebrate the second best biscuit in the world turning 100 years old (surely the Hobnob wins the top spot) its team revealed we have been eating them all wrong. It turns out that you should eat them with the chocolate side face down. Mind blown!

Apparently, this makes it melt more easily into your face-hole and the flavours rush through even quicker. Not to put a fly in the ointment, but this theory becomes flawed when you bring dunking into the equation. I tested rigorously this week. When the chocolate is face down, post-dunking, it makes it more of a flight risk into your hot drink of choice.

In my head this is because the chocolate adds extra weight and tips the biscuit anxiety over the edge. When you eat the biscuit chocolate side up, post dunk, it stays together far more regularly. I believe the biscuit side is more structurally sound than the chocolate side. I am available as a McVitie scientist, should I be required.

Great PR for McVitie’s and kudos to Taylor Herring.

Is that an air-fryer in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me?

Another fantastic big brand PR campaign shone through this week. Philips and its erotic air-fryers. This came via the cool people over at Smoking Gun; an agency we all know, love and respect.

Now, I will admit, I don’t own an air-fryer and never understood the hype, but the latest story by the OG brand that brought air-fryers into our lives has got me reconsidering my cooking machine choices.

Philips used science-research types to reveal that using air-fryers turns us on. I mean, I can see it. I have often had a slight fear that I love beige food too much. Then again, I have never acted upon that loving urge. My onion-rings remain safe.

Smoking Gun and Philips got the info from a boner-fide (see what I did there) expert. Dr Eleanor Bryant, associate professor of health and eating psychology at the University of Bradford, reckons that the ping of the air-fryer being ready causes a bit of arousal.

If she thinks that way about an air-fryer, then I fear what would be said about my state of arousal when I take a pepperoni pizza out of the oven. It’s a great story by Philips and Smoking Gun and well worthy of the second good PR of the week. PR at its finest.

Retailers trump the tariffs using honesty

Trump and his tariffs are bonkers. This is, of course, just my own opinion. I am loving that some brands are now starting to stick their head above the parapet and talk about the negative effect.

Step forward Adidas and Amazon. It takes a brave brand to take on Trump right now, and these two have. A leak from within Amazon revealed that it is considering showing the price increase caused by the tariffs alongside its prices on the ecomm giant’s website. On top of this Adidas came out and said that it too was going to have to increase prices in America because of the tariffs.

Trump’s unhinged (again, just my opinion) spokesperson nearly exploded as she answered media questions about the subject. Despite his supporters crowing about him reaching the 100-day milestone, it has been a tough week for Trump.

Whilst Adidas and Amazon went public with their issues, it is said that some of America’s biggest car makers and grocery retailers have been privately and discreetly warning him that his current economic path is not sustainable. Judging by the car tariff easing activities, he is listening, but who knows for how long and why.

Strong (good) strategic PR by Adidas and Amazon and, as seems to have been the case since he took the throne, Bad PR for Trump

Big tapestry energy puts the willy’s up historians

Probably my favourite story of the week. Two historians got into a spat on a podcast about how many penises are shown on the Bayeux Tapestry. Yes, you read that right.

In one corner stands Oxford professor George Garnett. Six years ago he announced that he had counted 93 of them on the famous cloth. In the other corner stands Dr Christopher Monk (he has the nickname “the Medieval Monk”), historian and Bayeux tapestry scholar who reckons he has found a 94th.

The real winner in all of this is the History Extra podcast which I imagine had more publicity in the last week than ever before in its, erm, history. To be fair, this columnist learned lots from the story. Apparently, in historic-art-terms, the bigger the warrior, the bigger the penis that was depicted on them, or their horse. What do I take from this; historic-artists were an odd bunch.

Good PR for the tapestry and History Extra!

Wean the babies off the sugar

Bad PR for the baby food-pouch companies this week courtesy of BBC Panorama. The show revealed that most of the well-known baby food-pouch brands are actually not that good for babies to eat.

Well, and this is the bit that I felt was obvious but clearly not… they are not healthy if you ONLY feed your baby these foods instead of them playing a part in a balanced diet of home-made and fresh foods.

Some parents have seemingly been hosing these pouches into their kids thinking they were 100% healthy. This tells me they are being marketed wrong by the brands involved.

On the plus side, one of our very own Kristal Ireland, appeared in the documentary and further enhanced her reputation as an absolute legend.

Bad PR for the baby-food brands.

Only the unimaginative can fail to find a reason for drinking champagne

Oscar Wilde was right! Champagne and white wine in general had an unlikely marketing and reputation boost this week as University research found that drinking it could help avoid a cardiac arrest.

As ever, the devil was in the detail, and this is not exactly what the Uni professors said. The research found that those with a healthier and fun lifestyle were less likely to have a cardiac arrest compared to those with an obese and unhappy lifestyle. Like the baby food story, it is kind of obvious, no?

The research came from Dr Huihuan Luo, from Fudan University in Shanghai, China. It was part of a wider study into the ways in which people can reduce the chances of having a heart attack.

Step one: don’t look at the price of the champagne you are drinking.

The headlines didn’t quite match the story, but that doesn’t matter to the syndicated content brigade who love a story like this. Good PR for champagne and Fudan University.

Scientific proof that your robot is lazy

Some people are never happy, and I would put scientists and graphic designers at the top of that list. The latest thing to catch the ire of Team Science is robot Roomba’s. You know, the machines that hoover around your house on their own.

Scientists from the University of Bath feel that these robot vacuum cleaners are being under-utilised. I mean, what more do they want them to do. Quite a lot it turns out. Apparently, they could, with minor modifications, do things like charge your phone, feed your pets, project movies onto walls, water plants or tell your kids that you are on a call when working from home.

The University of Bath bunch came up with around 100 further tasks that the Roomba could carry out. I am not sure why, but it got the media coverage from it. Personally, I love those videos where pets are being carted around the house by sitting on the machines. They always make me chuckle.

So, have a word with all of your household robots and let them know that they are lazy buggers and need to up their game. Great PR for the University of Bath, Bad PR for lazy robots.

Big thanks to a few people this week for signposting stories. Alan S Morrison, Shôn Douglas, Carl Stroud and Steven Douglas. Remember, if you have a story you want to share, good or bad, you know how to find me.