This week we’ve seen the relaunch of an old friend for many: Friends Reunited. The site is back and targeting all the people for whom it was their first social networking experience. Lansons is picking up the site’s PR.

Here’s a quick promo video for the relaunch, with something that sounds suspiciously phallic at 45 seconds in, as pointed out by @BennyCrime.

On to the rest of the good (and bad) stuff.

Good PR of the week
 

Batman returns
 

Here’s a really quick and cool story from Brazil. Police in Sao Paulo have dispatched a retired officer in a Batman costume to patrol crime-ridden neighbourhoods, in a bid to help children make the connection between good – Batman/the police – and evil.

More on Buzzfeed here. Thanks to Pegasus PR’s Kieran Watkins.

Airline catering
 

British Airways created a pop-up restaurant in everybody’s favourite London hipster-hangout Shoreditch, gaining some nice exposure in the process. The restaurant is called Flight BA2012, and intends to promote the airline’s sponsorship of London 2012.

The first-class restaurant is being run by chef Simon Hulstone and has been made to look like the inside of a plane. The £50 dinner menu was co-designed by none other than Heston Blumenthal.

Tickets to the dining lounge all sold out within days, marking a successful campaign for PR agency Cake, who did well to promote the Olympics’ official London airline. Talking about Cake ...

Alton Towers’ age-old stunt
 

Cake is also behind this following example. (Cake is not paying me, honest – though I don’t know if the same can be said for how the following was achieved. If not by lining pockets, I’m at a loss as to how and can only stand back and appreciate the beautiful PR work that must have gone into it).

Alton Towers has somehow managed to get the BBFC – the British Board of Film Classification – to assign an age rating to its newest theme-park attraction; the Nemesis Sub-Terra. You may remember the 3D lift art stunt created last month, also to promote the new ride.

The ride has been classified a 12A, making it the first non-film or game to receive an age rating by the organisation. The rating means that under 12s will have to ride with an adult. The brilliance of the stunt, of course, is that it does wonders to highlight how potentially frightening it will be – exactly the sort of news to make thrill-seekers go weak at the knees.

Media including the BBC, the Huffington Post, The Sun, The Independent, The Telegraph and dozens of other well-known outlets picked up on the story.

Bad PR of the week
 

A dressing down
 

We talk a lot in the industry about how PR people need to improve the way they target bloggers, and here’s another example that just shines a light on poor practice.

A Million Dresses is a blog written by Sarah, somebody who says she’s addicted to dresses. She writes about dresses and seemingly – I’ve never contacted her as I have no relevant clients at present – also writes about fashion.

On Tuesday, Sarah was contacted by a PR person for a "South Kensington-based gift boutique" Zen Kensington. The person asked Sarah to review an item. Sarah chose a bag. The PR person replied to say the boutique could no longer supply a bag, saying it could only afford to send a bracelet.

Sarah then Tweeted to say that she’d been called a "cheapskate blogger" after a free "designer bag", and rightly made the point that she’d been contacted and not the other way around. A few Tweets later, and we hear that she’s being "abused" by said PR, who had taken to telling Sarah that she should "get a real job". Oh, and she called her darling, too. How very PR.

It gets worse.

Later, Sarah Tweeted to say that she’d got another email from the PR person, who had kindly contacted Sarah with some advice:

“By the way, a word of advice. That diet you keep Tweeting about? You should really go on it”.

What a lovely person. Read about it from Sarah’s point of view on her blog here.

Thanks to PR student Emily for Tweeting me with this.

Contact PR Rich Leigh with it by Tweeting him @GoodandBadPR or by emailing rich@10yetis.co.uk throughout the week and we’ll happily credit you for your trouble.

Good and Bad PR is a feature on the blog of 10 Yetis PR Agency.Rich also writes about PR stunts at PRexamples.com.