Good PR

Three words… Aldi. Wine. Club. It’s not a new thing, but it’s just received another wave of coverage, after Aldi announced that it was looking for 30 new wine tasters to join its panel.

This happens every three months and is an opportunity for the chosen tasters to try out samples of Aldi’s wine free-of-charge in exchange for a Twitter review with the hashtag #AldiWineClub.

The chosen ones, who will form the 22^nd Aldi Wine Club panel, will receive bottles of wine from the Aldi range over a six-week period, along with some guidance on how to properly taste and review wine; so you only need to be a “budding wine connoisseur” to apply and not even an expert.

Hopefuls are told that they must apply via email to wineclub@aldi.co.uk (that’s an easy one to remember, even when drunk), and write 150 words about why they should be selected for the panel.

The story has been picked up everywhere, including The Independent, Mail Online, Daily Mirror, Daily Star and other national titles, so applications have no doubt come flooding in.

Off I go to apply…

Bad PR

Fashion retailer Pretty Little Thing has been heavily criticised this week after a customer ordered a size 8 dress only to find that it was so ridiculously small that it fit her 4-year-old daughter.

There has been plenty of scandal in the media recently surrounding clothing retailers that get their sizing way off, but this just about takes the biscuit.

So bought this in a size 8 from @OfficialPLT wouldn’t even go over my head and just fits my 4 year old daughter! Really????? pic.twitter.com/cmVrJagkJO

— kirsty 🦋 (@Kirstyfruitz) 21 May 2019

Kirsty Dee took to Twitter to express her shock and uploaded a photographer of her little girl in the dress, which appears to be the perfect size for a child of four and certainly not a size 8 woman:

She later spoke to The Sun and said it was “disgusting” how Pretty Little Thing promotes body confidence and then gets its sizing so drastically wrong.

As a woman, clothes sizes are an absolute minefield; you can be a size 10 on paper, but then find yourself having to buy size 14 jeans because the retailer has made everything positively microscopic.

This story has not done Pretty Little Thing any favours in a day and age when body positivity is at the forefront of many people’s minds and the media rightly took the side of the disgruntled customer, leading to coverage in the Metro, Mirror and of course The Sun. The backlash on social media off the back of the original tweet and further coverage of Kirsty’s story was also savage, adding to the damage to the brand’s reputation.

Written by Shannon Peerless, 10 Yetis @ShazzaYeti on Twitter. Seen any good or bad PR lately? You know what to do @10Yetis on Twitter or andy@10Yetis.co.uk on email