Good PR of the week

“Up” yours Newton

Thanks again to the unstoppable good and bad PR finding machines that are Sharon Chan from Consolidated PR and Kirsty Henderson from Willoughby PR, we have this.

In a project undertaken by the National Geographic Channel along with a team of scientists, engineers and experts, a Disney tie-in has blown everything else I’ve seen this week out of the water.

Fans of Disney Pixar’s film Up – and let’s be honest, if you’re not a fan you either haven’t seen it or you’re just plain dead inside – be prepared to be amazed ...

They’ve only gone and recreated the floating balloon house. For real...

By inflating 300 eight-feet-tall balloons with helium, the team were able to launch the 16ft by 16ft by 18ft house to an altitude of 10,000 feet, recognised as the largest balloon cluster flight ever attempted.

This isn’t the first great PR Disney has scored with Up, further to a genuinely heart-warming story about a terminally ill child whose wish was to watch the (at-the-time) unreleased film.

It can’t have been easy to get this campaign idea off the ground (thanks very much), so all credit to the National Geographic team for taking it through to such an amazing conclusion.
 

Bad PR of the Week

What a mess.

First, your career future is thrown into question by ties to a convicted paedophile. Second, a photo of you with your arm around a girl said paedophile employed “as a masseuse” (but she alleges exploited her while a minor) surfaces. Then, your ex-admits that you arranged for Mr Convicted Paedophile to pay off a small portion of her massive debts.

Yep, Prince Andrew, the Duke of York must rue the day he ever clapped eyes on American billionaire Jeffrey Epstein. Not least because there is, as has been reported by The Telegraph, “intense pressure” building for him to step down from his unpaid role as UK trade ambassador.

Certain media outlets have had a field day with the story, blaming everything from the Duke’s upbringing (harsh) to his judgement (less harsh). The Government’s response to the series of headlines has been criticised by many different quarters for being confusing, which highlights the point that in the face of what could quickly and easily become a headline-grabbing story, you have to choose a PR path and stick to it.

You can see why the media and general public could see the message as confused. A source within Number 10 made it clear on Sunday that there would be no “tears shed” if the Duke resigned his role, before an official spokesman stated on Monday that the Government was fully supportive of his decision to stay on. One thing is for sure – Craig Oliver’s first full week as the director of Downing Street communications has been an interesting one.

Thanks to Jon Clements from Staniforth PR and Lisa Gillingham from Lewis PR for Tweeting me with this for bad PR this week.

On that note, if you want to contribute to this column, simply email me or tweet me @GoodandBadPR.

Good and Bad PR is a feature on the blog of PR Agency 10 Yetis.