Good PR

In The Style

Following the tragic death of TV presenter Caroline Flack over the weekend, online retailer In The Style has raised more than £100,000 for The Samaritans after launching a collection of T-shirts with a beautiful quote posted by the star on her Instagram page only recently.

The T-shirt, available in black, pink and white designs, costs £10, with delivery charges dropped and all proceeds being donated to the charity aimed at providing emotional support to anyone in the UK suffering emotional distress, struggling to cope, or experiencing suicidal thoughts. After its launch on Monday morning, the T-shirt sold-out almost immediately, with British celebrities such as Mrs Hinch and Sam Faiers taking to their social platforms in order to praise the brand for making such a huge fundraising effort in the wake of such sad circumstances.

In The Style is expected to add more ‘Be Kind’ T-shirts to its website, for those wanting to show their support for the cause and help in raising more awareness of the issues surrounding mental health and its impact on individuals.

IKEA

Whilst the Swedish brand itself had nothing to do with this stunt, I do love how one very clever (if a little sneaky) influencer managed to convince her 300,000 followers that she was in Bali enjoying a sun-soaked trip away, when in reality she was in her local IKEA posing for some extremely well-thought out content.

On 6 February, Natalia Taylor posted a series of images which she claimed were captured on the Indonesian island, geotagging it and using it in her hashtags. Despite asking her photographer to subtly leave some IIKEA tags in images – which a few savvy followers did call her up on – even some of her best friends were fooled into thinking she was enjoying the vacation abroad.

It wasn’t until last week, when Taylor posted the video ‘i FAKED vacation at IKEA’ that the truth surrounding her ‘holiday’ was revealed. She explained that the idea was to educate people on not trusting everything they read on the internet, and that sometimes people want to lie about who they are.

Greg James

As I write this (on Wednesday morning) there will no doubt be hundreds of music industry insiders nursing sore heads after another eventful night at the Brit awards.

One celebrity enjoying last night’s festivities was BBC Radio 1 DJ Greg James, who was at the tail end of some criticism this morning after failing to show up for his breakfast show, presumably due to an epic hangover. His colleagues Adele Roberts, Jordan North and Matt Edmondson were all forced to step into to cover his shift, before it emerged that he’d in fact been kidnapped by the station and (at the time of writing this column) has absolutely no idea where he is.

I can only assume this is part of a wider prank or feature Radio 1 is currently working on regarding its flagship show’s host, and it’s certainly got me intrigued to find out what’s next.

Bad PR

Meghan and Harry

After their move to Canada and requests to essentially quit their responsibilities as members of the royal family earlier this month, it has this week been confirmed that Harry and Meghan will be unable to use or profit from the ‘Sussex Royal’ label in their business endeavours.

This will no doubt come as a shock to the couple, who’ve built a website around the prestigious title, and had also registered the name as a trademark for international use on all kinds of items. Looks like we won’t be buying our ‘Sussex RoyaL’ T-shirts, stationary and books any time soon. Gutted.

Looks like it’s time for a rebrand for the Windsors – if you need a digital agency, you know where we are guys!

Priti Patel

Home Secretary Priti Patel has been attempting to defend her newly announced immigration rules this week, after the Tory focus of wanting to ‘take back control’ and cut ‘cheap’ labour from the EU.

After being quizzed by LBC’s Nick Ferrari, Patel was forced to admit that her parents, Ugandan immigrants who came to the UK in 60s and set up a chain of newsagents, wouldn’t have been allowed to enter the country under the new rules for those wanting to come and work in the UK.

The proposed new system, which will come into force on 1 January 2021, will require immigrants to speak English (10 points) and already have work lined up in the UK (20 points). Other ways to earn points include a salary of at least £23,040 a year (10 points), a job that is on a shortage occupation list (20 points) and a PHD (10 points or 20 points depending on kind of degree). If the applicant doesn’t have at least 70 points, then they won’t be eligible for a visa.

This news will surely be food for thought for anyone feeling positive about the new points system, who no doubt has family members, friends or colleagues who themselves came over to the UK to better their lives.

Written by Lauren Wilden, head of PR at 10 Yetis. Seen any good or bad PR lately? You know what to do @10Yetis on Twitter or andy@10Yetis.co.uk on email