Another week has raced on by. So many stories, here is my pick of the Good and the Bad from the last seven days in the world of public relations.

Musk takes on the FBI

Well, Musk backed the right horse and won the keys to the asylum. Rather naively, I thought he would just get a 'head of' role at NASA, but no, he went for more than that.

He is now head of reducing government spending. The FBI is rumoured to be the first big spender in his sights. Whilst it is great PR for Musk, is it really the best move for America? He has said he is going to share their thoughts on the areas they want to cut over on the Twittering X. People can vote on the decisions that are made.

As we all know, courtesy of Boaty McBoatface, the muggles don’t always make the best decisions. You have to worry don’t you.

Gareth Owen's, media and social media intelligence consultant at Carma analyses Musk in the media this week:

This graph below compares this week's (w/c: 11/11/24) media coverage mentions for Musk and Trump, Trump and the US Government's Department of Efficiency. 

Natwest being cautious

A comms team that has done amazingly well this week is NatWest. The bank IT crew were removing staff’s ability to access WhatsApp, Skype or Messenger from company equipment.

This could have blown up but the messaging really landed. The team reinforced that recent court cases where Whatsapp messages have been deleted are too risky for a bank. Consumers seemed to agree. When you think of the high-profile cases that have contained situations like this, and no, I don’t just mean… Rebekah Vardy’s account, but things like the government Covid enquiry, then you realise it is a risk too far.

Kudos to the NatWest comms team for landing it.

Beluga Whales are not rats

Beluga Whales have had a reprieve this week. A little while ago you may remember that the Norwegian navy captured a Russian spy whale, paddling around its naval ports. Upon closer inspection, the whale in question was found to be wearing Russian made technology. Guilty as charged you would think?

Well, no. Team Animal Science has stepped in to defuse the situation with some facts. Although it was apparently a Russian trained military whale (it has a well pressed wet suit and saluted officer whales), Team Science say it was basically a look-out whale, most likely guarding Russian ports.

Apparently this whale in question went rogue and strayed into the Norway boat bonanza as part of its search for food. A likely story, but one I love. Good PR for Beluga Whales

Oh, referee! 

I have to mention that referee don’t I. Not only did he say mean things about the world’s greatest football manager (Klopp) but then a second video came out alleging that he loved a dabble in Bolivian marching powder.

On a more serious note, this does nothing to improve the muggles opinions on referee’s. At a time when the FA reports that abuse of grass roots ref’s are at an all time high (pardon the pun) this doesn’t help.

It has been a tough week for football in general. The way the BBC handled the Lineker contract situation was very odd too.

The story was leaked well ahead of time and it is not the first time that the BBC has done this. Who was to blame? No one knows yet, but the fact his contract negotiations played out so publicly must be a real concern for the wider talent pool at the nation’s favourite broadcaster.