Good PR 

Valentine's Day... a time for romance, rendezvous and ruddy good PR stunts. This week, I've been on the lookout for the best ones and Domino's Pizza caught my eye with its solid effort.

The pizza delivery chain announced a competition on its Facebook page which people could enter for the chance to win a piece of jewellery that it commissioned to be made. The 22-carat gold ring with a diamond-encrusted pizza slice where the glitzy rock would normally be was presented in a tiny cardboard jewellery box that resembled one of the iconic blue delivery boxes, and the photographs looked ace.

All people had to do for the chance to win was comment on the post. There were 943 in total, with 571 reactions (mostly likes, loves and laughs).

This stunt was part of the Domino's Valendine-in campaign (great name). There was an event page created by the brand on its Facebook page which people could hit “going” on, if they were planning to "attend" (that is, on their own sofa at home with a pizza). 6.1k people “went”, who each had the chance to win a "Domino's 'Box of Love” stuffed with all things dough-mantic." Domino's even created a “saucy Spotify playlist” for people taking part in the “Valendine-in” to listen to whilst munching on pizza with their loved one. 

The coverage was DOUGHPE... see what I did there? I've seen the ring story picked up by the The Sun, Huffington Post, Cosmo, Mirror, Daily Stay, City A.M. and more.

Success? I'd say so!

Bad PR

From a delicious Valentine's PR stunt to one that left a sour taste in people's mouths, the London Dungeon is in a spot of bother for its choice of Twitter messages over the romantic holiday.

The team behind the attraction's Twitter account took to the social media platform to jump on the trending hashtag #ValentinesDay and try to get some exposure out of it. Well, it worked but not everyone was too happy about the posts.

One of the tweets read “What's the difference between your job and a dead prostitute? Your job still sucks!” and another said “Jack the Ripper just messaged. He wants to Netflix and kill.”

Whilst others from the campaign were less insensitive, like “Filters are powerful #ValentinesDay <3” and a supporting graphic that read “You look nothing like your pictures”, the slightly more controversial ones have caused a bit of a stir.

The London Dungeon is thought of as a family-friendly destination, which is why all of this was a bit much for people. The Ann Summers brand, which was working with the attraction for its Valentine's Day events, said "It is really disappointing to see tweets which are overtly sexist and negative towards women – attitudes we absolutely do not tolerate – or support – at Ann Summers."

The Merlin Group, which owns the London Dungeon, has probably had a lot of firefighting to do over the last few days to smooth out the damage done. An apology has been issued, with the brand claiming it was simply trying to highlight the darker side of history.  

The story is up on the Metro and Evening Standard currently, with others sure to follow.  

 Written by Shannon Peerless, 10 Yetis @ShazzaYeti on Twitter

Seen any good or bad PR lately? You know what to do @10Yetis on Twitter or andy@10Yetis.co.uk on email