Stuff that PR consultants just do
25th April 2023
Bin backlash for Halifax Top Cat campaign
I bet the marketing team at the Halifax bank thought they were on to a winner with their latest campaign, which features legendary cartoon character Top Cat.
With the antics of the animated 1960s wise-guy hustler, who was always getting one over Officer Dibble with friends Benny the Ball, Choo Choo, Brain and Fancy-Fancy, about to […]
Women in bikinis – a guaranteed PR winner
Death and taxes top the list of life’s certainties. Coming a close third it seems is the fact that any marketing or PR campaign featuring women in underwear, bikinis or very little else will be a sure-fire hit.
We can debate the rights and wrongs of this until the cows come home, but never has the […]
You can always bet on Paddy Power’s PR stunts
Paddy Power has pulled off quite possibly one of the best PR stunts of all time.
The Irish bookmaker placed a case containing a waxwork dummy of Sir Alex Ferguson outside Manchester United’s Old Trafford ground with a branded note on the glass which said ‘In case of Emergency Break Glass’.
The stunt poked fun at the […]
Lego cops great PC PR
I’m a massive fan of Lego’s PR and it’s done it again with its latest stunt that’s hit the headlines.
Previously, the Danish toy maker has built a lifesize Volvo car, done it’s own version of famous album covers and even built a 10m tall Christmas tree in London’s Kings Cross St Pancras railway station.
This time […]
Krispy Kreme jam chaos is textbook PR
Well done Krispy Kreme for a creative take on one of the oldest PR tricks in the book to launch its first store in Scotland.
A crowd draws a crowd and the fact that there were traffic jams around Edinburgh’s Hermiston Gait Retail Park as people descended en masse with the lure of free doughnuts turned […]
The worst hotel that makes the best PR
Back in June, we told you the story about a hilarious tongue-in-cheek Craigslist ad that showed you just what you could achieve with a bit of PR imagination – even if you’re trying to sell something as lousy as a clapped-out, sickly teal-coloured Pontiac AM GT.
Yet in a grubby Amsterdam hostel, which has grabbed worldwide […]
Budweiser flying high with boozy pilot PR
When we hear someone describe a particular person as ‘attention seeking’ almost all of us would consider it as a rather negative personal trait.
But as people of PR persuasion, when we hear the same words used to describe some kind of brand or business then we usually consider it as a compliment and a mark […]
Campaign ban for telling porkies about ham
As part of our service, we often get asked by clients for advice about whether they should complement their PR with other forms of marketing such as TV and newspaper advertising.
On the whole, we positively recommend it, as more often than not advertising and PR work well together as part of a wider and more […]
Fiat photobombing prank the perfect picture of PR
Amongst the many adjectives and superlatives we’d use to describe a truly great PR practitioner we would almost certainly have to include the words ‘quick-thinking’, ‘crafty’ and ‘opportunistic’ near the very top of our list.
And nothing captures the essence of precisely what we mean more than the cunning PR minds at Fiat Group’s Swedish headquarters […]
Bookie White Horse stunt an odds-on PR winner
One of the best things about working in PR is that you get the chance to inject a bit of fun and frivolity into what can often otherwise be a very dull and dreary news agenda.
Giving readers entertainment is as important to newspapers as serious news reporting. And so journalists and editors are always on […]
Ad face-paint idea a PR masterstroke
They may well have come up with a novel way to sell advertising, but ultimately it will be the PR value of their proposition that will end up sending sales of their ad face painting service through the roof.
That’s our assessment of a new business venture conceived by two recent Cambridge graduates as a way […]
Concrete jungle tour a dream PR ticket
When Croydon resident James Naylor decided to set up a company offering guided tours of his home town, few people would have thought he stood a chance of making it a genuine business success.
But, as we’ve discovered time and time again with our own clients, sometimes it’s the most unconventional of business ideas that go […]
Is Blue Monday fact or PR fiction?
At Octopus PR, we often see stories in the media about results of research or surveys into current lifestyle trends and wonder just how much of them is fact and how much is just plain PR fiction.
Take, for example, the story that appears at this time every single year about a study which claims that […]
Tourism minister puts bungee jump reputation on line
As PR practitioners, we’d like to say that there’s little we wouldn’t be prepared to do to help preserve or improve the reputation of our clients.
But we’re not entirely convinced that we’d have the courage shown by Zambia’s tourism minister, Given Lubinda, who helped his country out by doing a PR stunt in the very […]
Ozzie goldfish PR stunt dead in the water
Few in the PR fraternity would dispute that a well-conceived publicity stunt is one of the best ways of getting widespread media exposure.
But as an Australian regional development agency discovered at its peril, if you’re going to put yourself in the media spotlight then at least make sure that it is for the right reason.
Advantage […]