Off we go again, racing through another week of PR hits and misses. No time for small talk, let’s see who has had a good and bad week in communications.

Sports Direct and Which? have a bust up

As I keep on saying, some stories are cyclical. Which? will always gloss over the fact it apparently makes money from affiliate marketing, and Sports Direct will always face allegations of shenanigans.

The most famous child of business pantomime villain Mike Ashley stands accused of shady pricing practices by Which?

Are we surprised? Probably not. Will it prevent us from shopping from the sporting giant the next time we need an emergency piece of sports equipment? Absolutely not.

This is why Sports Direct doesn’t respond to allegations like this, it doesn’t need to and it won’t stop its loyal customer base from buying at the store.

Which? reckons that Sports Direct was overinflating the RRP of its products. So, when it says that the Donnay or Lonsdale vest that you really need for the beach in Marbs was originally £400.00 RRP, but it reduced the price to £0.99p, that may not be entirely true.

I mean, come on, doesn’t every brand do this. Are Which? so flush with rumored affiliate marketing cash that its team has never been to an outlet village? If it did, it would maybe focus efforts on the brands there, instead of poor old Mike Ashley.

Still, bad PR for Sports Direct, I guess and good PR for Which? I am keen to stress that in my opinion only, is dressed up as a form of Nanna-protector. I wonder if it used affiliate links to Sports Direct in its website story. I jest for comedic value purposes only.

Hippy festival attendees will have more leg room

Fair play to Glastonbury Festival and the team in charge. Although the Eavis family sold up a long time ago, they are still heavily involved. In an era where ticket prices go up according to demand and event organisers want to maximise every penny by cramming people in, Glastonbury has gone rogue.

Emily Eavis, the daughter of the founder of Glastonbury has announced that it is letting less people attend this year. This is to try and offer a more relaxed and less squashed-feeling for the great unwashed who attend.

Having worked in the communications team for the local transport company who service the festival every year, the cleaning crew will be delighted. It is great for a brand like Glastonbury Festival to take this drastic step, despite it costing them money. Let’s hope the good publicity that the move generated will encourage other artists to do the same.

Sub editors rejoice as Poundland sale serves up an open goal

Struggling bargain shop, Poundland has sold. How much did the owners sell it to a US hedge fund for? Yep, £1. Headline writers had a field day.

I salute the comms team at Poundland for getting the story out there so well, in what must be a horrid time for all involved. Rival bargain stores have come along and blown them out of the water on the pricing front.

It looks like the sale will result in job losses and store closures, but will secure the immediate-to-medium-term future of the brand. Good PR from me for the comms team for the way they have handled themselves through this.

Wetherspoons uses sneaky comms message to secure meal-deal victory

It is a well-known fact that customers of Wetherspoons often have to walk as far as they have travelled when it comes to needing to use the toilets. The company used a similar distance between the truth of this next story and the reality.

All the headlines screamed that Wetherspoons was launching a £3 meal deal. They are, kind of.

Which? should have a gander at this story too.

Wetherspoons wants a slice of the supermarket meal deal market, and has trotted out a glorious campaign that secured the message that they are a credible rival to superstores in the mind of the muggle. The detail; they have a small plates range that are three for £10. The media story therefore reads that each plate costs £3. This is where the £3 headlines came from.

It is a genius bit of marketing from the Wetherspoons comms team and this is why they get a hugely sought after good PR gong from me.

Is London Tech weak towards parents?

In this modern age of progressive business practices it has been a shocker of a time for London Tech Week. Davina Schonle, an entrepreneur from the West Midlands, arrived at the event networking ready and armed with a baby in a pushchair. The “computer says no” mentality of the event security and entrance staff kicked in, and barred her entry.

Apparently, London Tech Week does not have the necessary safety measures and insurances in place to allow businesspeople to bring their kids to these kinds of events. I do wonder what goes on at the event that makes it not safe for children?

Live crocodiles waddling around? Was a TV presenter from the 70’s or 80’s walking around having escaped the grasp of the Yewtree boys? The laser-beam gun demos on stand number 64 could present a real risk after all.

Or, is it just a failure of common sense? To be fair, the event organisers probably saved the child from an incredibly boring day. You do have to acknowledge that they tried to resolve the situation by talking directly to Davina, but it was too late. She had already taken to LinkedIn, the replacement platform for whiners since we all ditched the Twittering X, and the story blew up from there.

Bad PR for London Tech Week.

Whales not getting the hump with humans after all, maybe

Regular readers will know how much I love team science for messing around with pointless studies instead of trying to cure the important issues in life.

This week it is the turn of humpback whales. They were targeted by the not-for-profit Seti Institute for their ability to blow rings out of their blow holes (the whales, not the scientists). It is surely obvious to us all that there must be a deeper meaning to this. Humpback whales can’t possibly just be doing it for shits’n’giggles and it is vitally important that we know the real reason why.

Fear not, the Seti Institute has cracked it. The whales are trying to communicate with us. What are they saying? Well, they don’t know that. Why are they trying to talk to us? Well, they don’t know that either, but they just are, ok?

Not to rain on their parade but I have cracked it. I decided to see if my partner's dads’ pond-based fish could shed light on this. Using pond weed and algae, they spelled out that the humpback whales were saying “stop throwing plastic in the ocean” and “the Octonauts are actually sea-terrorists dressed up as kids TV characters”. Nailed it! I am, of course, joking, he doesn’t have any pond-weeds or algae in his immaculately kept pond. Good coverage but pointless PR for the Seti Institute.

Big thanks to Alan S Morrison once again for the story suggestions. Got an idea for a mention, hit me up!