So, this is the last Good and Bad PR column of the year. As we all know, Christmas is that joyous time of year when clients blame their marketing teams if sales aren’t triple that of last year, so while this is short and I have a shedload of work to do, I wanted to say, enjoy it, don’t do anything stupid at your work parties and I’ll be seeing you after the New Year.

Good PR of the week

Heineken bottles it
 

To celebrate 140 years of Heineken beer, the brand set up a wall of beer bottles lit by LED lights in front of the Heineken Experience building in Amsterdam.

The five thousand green bottles form a digital video screen that was used to display a light show and will also show Facebook fan messages and pictures at it celebrates its birthday/anniversary.

The beer company has also launched Heineken – Your Future Bottle, a Facebook app that asks fans to submit designs for a limited edition bottle. The designs will be assessed by an expert panel, and the top 30 will be featured at Milan Design Week in April 2013, where a public vote will help pick the winner.

Thanks to Gemma Storey of Carrot Comms for letting me know about this by writing it up here.

JackpotJoy.com floats a duck
 

I’ve had a few days out of the office and, on the whole, away from Twitter. As such, I’ve likely missed a few stunts and campaigns this week, but it would have been impossible to avoid this one, with quite a few tweeting and retweeting the fact that there was a 50 foot-tall duck meandering its way down the Thames on Tuesday morning.

The half-ton rubber duck was part of a stunt by JackpotJoy.com, launching its Facebook FUNdation, part of a marketing campaign to grant funds to people who have good ideas to make people laugh. The stunt achieved a load of coverage and as I said, certainly got people talking.

Thanks to Maxim PR for tweeting me with it.

Bad PR of the week
 

WKD goes to the dogs
 

The drink of choice for 15-year-old girls everywhere, despite the ad campaigns targeting men, is the latest brand to misjudge a marketing campaign.

WKD’s Christmas appeal ads feature a picture of a sullen dog, and say “Just a few pounds a week could give this dog a home. It could also buy you a WKD“

WKD’s ad are typically and purposefully controversial, intentionally trying to hit who it thinks is its target market (I must have seen three men ever drinking the stuff). I can’t imagine it has angered many actual buyers with the ad, but it has since apologised and tweeted to say: “We're so sorry. We're taking the posters down and we're donating to animal rescue to start making amends. Apologies again.”

Thanks to Suzi Cretney of the Donkey Sanctuary in Devon (great place, by the way, kids loved it) for emailing me with this one.

Have you seen any good or bad PR?
 

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.