Good and Bad PR: Ofcom shafts Virgin, Halifax falls, Prince Harry & meh behaviour by Kismet Kebabs

With just weeks until the official “silly season” starts, the news agenda shows no signs of slowing down. 

Hold my hand as we take a slow and purposeful walk through the Good and Bad PR of the past seven days.

Prince Harry has a week to forget

Whilst I have spoken frequently about the positive media year the royal family is having, Prince Harry is having one to forget. 

This week he got hit with a double whammy of Bad PR. Firstly, Buckingham Palace was forced to come out and confirm that it had withdrawn its offer of free accommodation for the Prince and his family, because his team missed the deadline for the booking confirmation. He would have had no such problem with the Purple Palace. Just saying.

Then, and rather more high profile, he lost his joint court case against the Daily Mail Group (DMG). He now faces his share of a £50m legal bill, and more worryingly for the rest of us, it enabled the Daily Mail to reincarnate Paul Dacre, who went on what some may call, a bit of a rant against the claimants.

It is now emerging, mainly through leaks, allegations and back-briefing, that Prince Harry and his merry band of celebrity and high-profile court case buddies, may have approached DMG a short time before the verdict was handed down, to try and reach a settlement. That would have just spurred DMG on.

A strong win for DMG, Bad PR for Prince Harry once again. 

He really needs some time with his wider family, in the hope that their positive Royal PR starts to rub off on him.

Virgin gets shafted by Ofcom

Virgin Media had a really good go at knocking Prince Harry off the front pages, thanks to receiving a £28m Ofcom fine for repeatedly preventing customers from cancelling contracts.

Ofcom was investigating customer calls to the brand, that happened between January 2022 and September 2024. The calls being so long ago meant that Virgin was able to demonstrate that it had completely revamped how its customer service operation now functions, which triggered a 30% reduction in the fine.

As you would expect from a Virgin brand, the media company came out fighting in its defensive statement. It referenced Ofcom’s own latest data, which shows that “Virgin Media is now the least complained about broadband provider”. 

Boom. It isn’t enough to save them from getting a Bad PR gong from me though.

Sad day for building society heritage as Halifax brand gets scrapped

Sadly, it was only a matter of time before the brand of Halifax was scrapped. The writing was clearly on the wall when Lloyds' most recent digital marketing onslaught (check out its fantastically engaging LinkedIn, Instagram and TikTok content) resonated so well with the muggles. It is still a very sad end for such an iconic personal finance industry brand.

Today’s maximum-efficiency corporate world allows no room for sentiment, and those who, like me, look back on the brand history to remember it was once the largest building society in the world, are told to: 'Keep quiet, grandad, and move with the times'.

I praise the timing of the announcement and suspect it was being sat on until a heavy media-agenda week allowed the news to almost be “buried” by the bigger stories of the day. The legacy statement of Jo Moore will always live on in the hearts of crisis comms people like me. I will miss Halifax, and will forever remember the Howard adverts, which were probably its peak brand moment. 

A begrudging Good PR for Lloyds for the way in which it handled the story.

ITV purchase triggers a PR masterclass from Sky

Those new to the comms industry could do far worse than to look at the media statements given by Sky CEO Dana Strong about its takeover of ITV. They provide a masterclass in how to embrace and talk about nostalgia without giving anything concrete away.

The statement was packed with lots of soundbites like “we would love it to remain free to air” about shows like Coronation Street. She was also “happy to support” both ITV news and Sky News with the caveat that “it’s a little hard to predict the future”. This very much tells me that ITV News is not long for this world once the regulatory authorities approve the merger.

All of these soundbites are great for media snippets, but have enough ambiguity for big changes to go on. The overall campaign message is another that serves as a great example to media studies students… “This is the only way that the brands can compete with the streaming giants”.

Sky has delivered a comms lesson to many in the broadcasting industry. Great PR for them.

Great news as Unite Students cuts rates in some halls of residence

Unite Group, owner of many student halls of residence, gave welcome relief to new students across Leicester, Nottingham and Sheffield. It has been forced to cut its rental rates to remain competitive.

The wave of new property developments in these cities had meant that Unite was originally going to revise is occupancy percentages down, but by reducing its rental fees, it has now boosted its occupancy to higher levels than expected. It is welcome news to students and parents who are struggling to meet the cost of their kids furthering their education. 

It is now expected that residential property rental rates may also drop as commercial landlords look to try and tempt students out of halls of residence, and into their new builds. The Times led the charge on this story, and it proved so popular, I am guessing with social shares, that they even appear to have removed the paywall to increase its reach.

Great PR for Unite.

Meh behaviour by Kismet Kebabs

And finally… I must give a passing mention to the story that one of the largest makers of lamb kebabs in the UK has been found to have less than 10% sheep in its “meat”. 

Kismet Kebabs has been flogging kebabs packed with goat, fat and skin. 

I am not sure why anyone is outraged. Kebabs are the devil’s work, and you need to have a cold hard look at yourself if you are eating these for any other reason other than you have had one too many Sherbets!