Good and Bad PR: The OBR dominates the budget — but was it deliberate?

Back again with the latest dollop of good and bad from the public relations industry over the last seven days. In short: It's been busy.

The OBR’s truth or dare moment

I thought the OBR’s leak pre-budget was a classic case of look the other way/dead cat trick, but truth be told, I had a PRmoment versus Good and Bad PR row with head honcho Ben Smith. He thinks I’m talking shit (which I usually do), and it was a genuine balls-up. I suspect we may never get to know the truth, but either way it's the latest in an extraordinarily long line of comms mishaps from a Labour government with a majority of 174.

Onwards dear reader, onwards.

PRCA leader shows how it should be done

What’s this, a PR trade body leader getting a good PR gong? Step forward Sarah Waddington CBE.

Sarah hit the headlines this week in the Times of London, no less, thanks to her comments in her capacity as Head Shed of the PRCA at the CBI conference, aimed at Business Secretary MP Peter Kyle.

She told him that the budget pre-briefings were “shambolic” and highlighted that its comms messaging was not getting through. Good on Sarah for having the nerve to speak up in front of a televised audience and tell the government how it is — and there was nothing the Labour party comms machine could do to try and silence her.

They do it different down under

Speaking of public office and once again demonstrating the global reach of this column, a few of you from Australia sent this next story over. Nigel Jones has had to resign from his position as a city councillor for Jondalup, thanks to the public outcry from his trying to claim back on expenses a drink he bought in a strip bar.

As is always the case with stories like this, the sheer audacity of his reasoning for doing so is what probably tipped the muggles over the edge. He claimed that he couldn’t sleep whilst at a conference in Adelaide, so he decided to go out and get a drink. Unbeknownst to him, the first bar he walked into, entirely accidentally, was a strip bar.

He bought the drink and then realised the error of his ways. Upon spying a bikini-clad individual, he “skulled” his drink and got out of there. He still tried to claim that drink back! You could not make this up.

The public outrage has led to him stepping down for “personal” reasons. As a side note, if you were to put his publicity picture in a line-up and ask people to pick out who they thought looked the most likely culprit, his cheeky grin would mean they would pick him every time. A strong example of why PR people should think carefully before putting their client’s picture out publicly.

Starmer pretends to be down with the kids

The 6/7 thing is everywhere. My kids are doing it all day, every day, and it is driving the teaching world mad. Hat’s off to the Spad that briefed Starmer on the trend being something to watch out for during his recent appearance at a school.

He duly saw his opportunity and went for it. The kids laughed and joined in, the teachers shot him a glare, and the whole episode was uploaded to Starmer’s social media accounts as an example of him being so damn current.

The thing is, we all know he won’t have had a clue until he was briefed on it, and it looked entirely awkward and cringeworthy. My kids showed me the video of it last night after dinner and it has truly served a purpose. According to them (14, 14 and 15 years old), it is so cringe that it looks to have killed the trend off. Hoorah for Starmer after all.

Billy has lots of mates after all

Feel good story of the week goes to Billy Bus in Yorkshire. It is a bus entirely devoted to dogs going on a day trip. It is the inspiration of Laura Mohan, who needed longer than an average one-hour dog walker could offer. She has set up a dog-only bus service that takes them out for the day on the bus.

The Billy Bus travels around parts of Yorkshire collecting the dogs, ensuring they are safely and securely fastened and then takes them off for far flung walkies. The BBC loved the story, and this then triggered multiple copycat coverage before the serialisation crew stepped in and took it even bigger.

I love this story and it is exactly what makes us all smile. Good PR for Billy Bus founder Laura Mohan.

Betty gets sweaty over slogan use

Not a week goes by without a big brand seemingly pinching a muggles' idea without credit nowadays. This week it is Sweaty Betty, but it is an odd one, to say the least.

Fitness influencer Georgina Cox is widely thought to have created the fitness/wellness saying, “wear the damn shorts”. It is part of her body empowerment campaign to push her own PT services.

Sweaty Betty got in touch with her a few years ago and asked if she could use the slogan, and paid for her to be involved with the campaign as an influencer in her own right. It did the same the following year, but this year it ran with the same campaign... but did not use her or pay her.

She immediately went to the mattresses with a very public moan on social media and followed up with legal letters. Sweaty Betty replied, with maybe a smidge of a heavy-handed approach, and it has now resulted in a BBC story outing the brand for shoddy tactics.

I personally don’t think the brand has done anything wrong. Many have used that phrase for years before Cox did, and campaigns naturally evolve and move on. Sweaty Betty’s only mistake was the heavy-handed legal response. Allegedly calling her “bitter” was a step too far. Bad PR for the Lycra crew.

UEFA crisis comms campaign lands for Scotland

Three cheers for the Irn Bru-swilling crew who finally qualified for a football World Cup. I loved seeing all the videos on social media of the fans celebrating. I especially love the renditions of “Yes sir, I can boogie”, one of my favourite songs ever.

No sooner had the videos of celebrations started circulating, some by the official Scottish Football Supporters Association, than take-down requests flooded the social platforms by UEFA’s copyright police. In some of the videos of the dancing, you could see the pitch on the screen in the background, and the copyright police were not having that.

Fortunately, and, very unlike any of the suits at a sporting governing body, they realised their mistake and immediately vowed to put the copyright dogs of war back in their box. The videos were reinstated and we could all carry on watching the Scottish get a rare chance to rejoice.

I am personally writing to the NLA to see if they can appoint someone from UEFA as a non-exec director to see if the common-sense approach can rub off on our own industry.

Got it right or wrong, you know where to find me. Thanks as ever to Alan S Morrison for his story spotting and cheers to all the Oz crew who sent me the strip bar story!