Hello there, dearest reader. How are we all doing? Another hectic week in comms land with lots to talk about. Let’s quit the small talk and get about it!

M&S CEO Machin has a comms rival in Sainsbury's boss Simon Roberts

Regular readers will know that Stuart Machin, of M&S CEO fame, has me as his number one comms superfan. There is now a rival for my supermarket comms heart.

Last week, Sainsbury’s comms team unleashed its PR secret weapon, CEO Simon Roberts. He did a walking-and-talking results update video that landed brilliantly with the business and industry press. It always helps when the results that you are talking about are positive, but overall, it looks like Machin may finally have a credible supermarket-industry comms rival.

I find the new style of CEO-video-driven results updates refreshing. The supermarket industry has had a void for charismatic comms leaders since the Chubby Grocer (a nickname he gave himself), Lord Mark Price of Waitrose MD fame. 

Great work by the comms team to convince Simon Roberts to go with the video-based briefing, it really worked and, dare I say it, along with its bonza results, gave the brand a new lease of PR life. Worthy winners of the first Good PR of the week.

BBC provides Trump with the global distraction open-goal that he needed

Oh BBC, how I love you, but how I also cringe at some of the scrapes that you get yourself into. This very columnist was in demand across the BBC news network this week, talking about the impact of the Panorama video editing drama.

I can’t have been the only person in PR land who was taken aback by the revelations. It just isn’t very BBC, is it? Of course, it has blown up into a global story, but it has also provided Trump with the perfect opportunity to use it as a media distraction from his wider car-crash of a tenure as president of the most powerful country in the world.

The BBC interviews that I took part in were sombre affairs. The interviewers wanted to know if I thought this would damage the relationship and trust that the muggles have in the BBC news output. My opinion is that there will undoubtedly be a short-term blip, but longer term, the BBC will retain its spot as the most trusted source of information by the great unwashed.

The next time there is snow and us parents are praying for the schools to be closed to give us an extra hour in bed, we will all turn to the BBC local newsrooms. The next time there is a huge societal news moment, the BBC will gently and respectfully guide us all through it.

In times like this, especially through the lens of crisis communications management, I always think it is important to look at who your biggest detractors are and why they could be motivated to put the boot in. Consider this for one moment in relation to the BBC, and I think you can see why I think they will be just fine. Still, they get the first Bad PR of the week from me.

Cheaty Manchester pub quiz team destined for Netflix whodunnit

It feels like not a week goes by without another one of those social media-driven non-stories being blown onto the national media horizon.

This week, it is the turn of the Barking Dog pub in Manchester. The landlord announced on social media that a quiz team had been found cheating. No big news there. They were caught whispering questions into their smart watches. They were kicked out of the quiz, but the landlord refused to publicly out the name of the team.

It is then alleged that a large-scale whodunnit took place, including a conversation at a local council meeting. Where will this story end? Who knows, but I imagine it will result in the Barking Dog ranking number one in Google and your AI overlord of choice for the term “best pub quiz in Manchester”. Cynical, me, never!

Great PR for the Barking Dog… comment me your funniest quiz team name, they always make me laugh.

UK adults need to grow up

I have four kids of varying ages, from one to 15. Yes, I drank too much and accidentally overbred. Of all the toys they have ever had, I have only really given any credibility to those of a sporting nature. I am not into Lego, puzzles, parlour games or collectables. That makes me sound incredibly miserable; I really am not, I just never saw the appeal.

Anyway, the UK toy retail industry report has once again demonstrated how out of touch I truly am with the muggles. Toy sales are up in the UK, and it is being reported that one third of all sales are from adults buying things like Lego and Pokémon cards for themselves. No, really.

The Toy Retailers Association announced this as part of its annual campaign to showcase the toys that it believes will be the big hits this Christmas. I always love this story; similar to the John Lewis ad, I look out for it every year and see it as the starting pistol of the Christmas shenanigans.

It is the opinion of the Toy Retail Association that the rise in adults buying toys is down to the muggles wanting to try and escape the general car crash that is going on in the UK right now. Maybe Kier Starmer needs to buy himself a Lego set to distract himself from the leaky team he appears to have surrounded himself with? I will let you all decide what set would work best.

Great campaign by the toy people and a fantastic example of how adding one slight nuance into a historically successful story can give it an extra bit of pizazz.

Team science and Channel 4 team up to kick Hitler in his one ball

I mean, could we all have lived without knowing that Hitler was allegedly under-evolved in the genitalia world? I, for one, would answer a resounding “yes” to that question. Still, Team Science and Channel 4 have secured a mountain of coverage for the airing of a TV show that looks through the DNA of Hitler and what his likely ailments and health issues were.

As kids (and maybe adults), we all sang about his alleged testicle situation, but the rest of it was new to me. I never for one minute thought that he may have just had one. I simply thought it was a catchy propaganda ditty that caught on. You learn something new every day.

As for the micro element, a step too far in my eyes, but Channel 4 know better than anyone else that you must give the people what they want.

Great PR for Channel 4, the coverage has been staggering, as was the sheer volume of people who sent me this story for the column, you know me so well!