What a whirlwind of a week in the media it has been. The last seven days have been rammed with drama. From Starmer clinging on, through to the royals finally taking the global spotlight for positive reasons, it's been one for the books.
Let’s dive straight in.
King Charles takes centre stage with perfect speeches in America
King Charles has been waiting in the wings for a considerable amount of time. Now that he is on the throne, he has proven that he can more than command global media attention.
He has delivered a series of iconic speeches during his visit to America. One of the highlights being when he gently rebuked Trump about his thoughts on the US stopping the UK from having to speak German after World War II, with the added bonus of slightly offending the French, being just the warm up.
He then went on to speak at Congress, and received several standing ovations throughout his address. Not only did it make America wake up and realise that, despite our weak political situation, we actually have a serious global media operator in our arsenal.
My favourite bit was KC gifting Trump a bell from an ancient British submarine that carried the same name as the orange warmonger-in-chief, and telling him to ring it the next time he needed us.
Mic drop!
King Charles is the legendary head of a mighty PR machine, and he quite rightly wins my first Good PR of the week.
Adidas World Cup football kits have gone to the dogs
I hope that whoever came up with the idea at Adidas to create a range of World Cup football kits for dogs gets a Great Dane-sized bonus. The story is a really nice, feel good campaign that I can see winning the best PR awards.
It even throws in a whiff of controversy by not making kits for dogs of the minor nations, where it does not anticipate demand, i.e. Scotland, (sorry Alan S Morrison)! I think the Scottish decision is crazy, and fully anticipate a u-turn. Dare I suggest it is a deliberate ploy to get wider coverage, and the Scotland dog kits will land soon?!
There is no information about the pricing yet. I am picturing the British Bulldog in an official England shirt hitting the front pages in the summer. Nice one Adidas.
Marks & Spencer and Greggs cap off a bad week for shoplifting
The last few weeks have seen a few big-ticket retail announcements around shoplifting. M&S loudly announced that it was writing to the Home Secretary about the rise in shoplifting. Not long after, Greggs announced it was canning all self-service and moving everything to being back behind counters due to light fingered beige-food stealers.
I know, from having clients in the sector, just how high-impact shoplifting is across the UK. But, it is rare for brands to talk so publicly about this – because they don’t want to admit there is an issue, and attract further targeting by thieves. One tip I can give is that M&S and Greggs should hire the nanna’s of Gloucestershire to guard its stores.
A few Christmases ago, an M&S near to me faced early closure due to a suspect package being left behind. Security was called and the store was about to be evacuated. Before a security perimeter could be formed, a nanna who was not having any of it, jogged up and booted the bag open to reveal it was just shopping. A solid job, perfectly executed.
Just top be clear, I am not recommending you ever kick a suspect package, call the police!
Strong strategic comms by M&S and Greggs.
Electric cars get a surprise retail boost
A few years ago I wrote in this column about a UK Government think tank report that speculated that the electric car industry was being plagued by misinformation. No one knew who was behind the campaign. I say that last sentence in the same way that Rumsfeld made the line about known unknowns.
The media machine has gone full circle. Electric cars got another media boost this week when it was announced that plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) are far more expensive to buy and run than fully electric cars.
Again, it came from a government backed piece of research and surprisingly, it faced little in the way of hostile news from the non-electric car manufacturers. I do wonder who in the car industry is gunning for what, but it is clear that the whole space is in a very interesting PR battle.
Great PR for the electric car brigade!
Written by
Andy Barr from Season One Communications. Got it right or wrong, I don’t really care but tell me anyway! Thanks to Alan S. Morrison for all the story spots again this week.
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