This week’s Stunt Watch is sponsored by Mrs Brown’s Boys — things I personally hate, but have to accept are incredibly effective.

Flatpack World Championships

This analogy is a little bit unfair on the first entry, but I despise flatpack furniture. However, I am forced to accept that Ikea is a global phenomenon, and some odd sorts genuinely like putting their furniture together…which is why I loved the crowning of Hayley McAuley as the world’s first Flatpack World Champion.

Taking place at the opening of Grand Designs Live at the ExCel London, the inaugural Flatpack World Championships saw eight competitors battle it out to build flatpack furniture as speedily as they could. Ms McAuley was awarded with a golden hex key medal and was congratulated by Kevin McCloud, who was the host of the event and is best known for presenting Grand Designs on Channel 4.

I love this idea for its simplicity and for affirming my long held belief that ‘crowning-a-world-champion-in-something-weird’ remains one of the PR industry’s most effective tools for generating good vibes coverage, but this iteration really was ‘top drawer’. There was a plethora of coverage in national print, online and broadcast, including the official ‘this has banged’ status symbol of appearing on Have I Got News For You. When it comes to generating noise about a home interiors event, you will struggle to assemble a better execution.

Simpy Sweeney

Men being massive simps is why Sydney’s Bathwater Bliss, a soap created by Dr Squatch that contains Sydney Sweeney’s actual bathwater, exists.

The move is in response to ‘customer demand’ after Ms Sweeney was filmed soaking in a bath for a Dr Squatch commercial…and the comments were full of men demanding access to the bathwater. The resulting product's description says it is a "perfect combination of the two best places on the planet: the outdoors and Sydney Sweeney’s bathtub." Made with sand, sea salt and shea butter, Sweeney's bathwater is listed as the "narrative element" on the ingredient list, which calls it "one of nature's finest aphrodisiacs."

Unsurprisingly, this product has made quite the splash…but the reaction is understandably quite mixed, even provoking chin-scratching thought pieces in lofty titles like The Spectator. Is it disgusting? Is it another example of misogyny reinventing itself? Or is it a woman completely owning her status as a sex symbol and having some fun with it? As Sydney Sweeney herself said, “when your fans start asking for your bathwater, you can either ignore it, or turn it into a bar of Dr. Squatch soap”.

On the Rest is Entertainment podcast, Marina Hyde described Sydney Sweeney as “A-list cool” because she “quite clearly doesn’t give a f**k”, and there’s no denying this product seems to double down on that sentiment. Unsurprisingly as a man with a pulse, I want to side with Sydney Sweeney and if any brand was to pull this off, it’s Dr Squatch which seems to have positioned itself as the Paddy Power of male hygiene. But, it’s also just a bit grim. Expect this product to in-cel out.

Robert Jenrick confronts TfL faredodgers

You know the ‘worst person you know made a great point’ meme? That’s how I feel about Robert Jenrick’s tube stunt, which saw the Tory turncoat filming himself pursuing and confronting faredodging customers on the London Underground.

It’s a campaign with more dog whistles than Crufts. Robert Jenrick is the MP for Newark and yet he’s in London to appeal to the sort of oaf who refers to London as ‘Londonistan’ and blames Khan for every ill in the country. He appears to fabricate a threat of knife crime, he is a man who allegedly conspired to help Richard Desmond unlawfully dodge tax and he was part of a Tory government that did more to erode the social contract more than any other government in my lifetime…and yet you cannot help but find some satisfaction in seeing him be a massive grass.

Whether you are on £130,000 or £30,000 a year, you are feeling the cost of living squeeze at the moment. Despite this, as TFL figures later proved, the vast majority of people are not resorting to jumping barriers. The same is true of other petty crime acts like shoplifting, so when you see it happen, it riles you in a different way. There was a lot of talk of broken social contracts and police underfunding, but really this stunt plays on one of the most universal British attitudes: fair play. We are a nation that made queuing for stuff a part of our national psyche, so seeing people take the piss and get away with it is a red rag to bull.

The resulting fallout was incredible. Virality on Twitter/X, invites to discuss it more on Good Morning Britain, further questions secured at PMQs. For a member of the most irrelevant version of the Tory party in modern history, it was an undeniably incredible feat of headline-grabbing. Of course, when you take a step back you can see the rank opportunism and hypocrisy of this endeavour again - but not before being riled by the subject matter. There’s no denying Robert Jenrick successfully tapped into something visceral here and that’s the ingredients of a great stunt.

Greggs’ sausage roll immortalised forever

Regular readers will know I prefer a good vibes only approach, so I cannot let Robert Jenrick have the final word. That should go to something universally loved by all, the Greggs sausage roll.

Madame Tussauds, a place where icons go.

Greggs sausage roll, an undeniable icon.

Greggs sausage roll in Madame Tussauds…need I say more? A prime example of superior simplicity and deserves every single piece of coverage it got. A campaign that ate and left no crumbs.