After the big brand bashing last week, the world of comms and PR has appeared to have calmed down. Maybe it is just the pre-Christmas lull? With the obvious exception of the impending WW3, it does seem to have been a lighter news agenda.

Fear not though, I have still found enough to fill up this week’s pot of Good and Bad PR.

The value of cash in hand jobs goes up

First off, a story that was sent to me enough times for me to start to question what kind of columnist you think I am. The fee being paid for sperm donors in the UK is going up.

To be clear, a fee is not technically allowed to be paid, but clinics can pay expenses or “compensation”. The amount you are now allowed to claim in expenses every time you indulge in the five-knuckle-shuffle-handover has risen. Clinics can now pay £45, when the previous limit was £35.

This is all down to a shortage of the good-stuff in UK sperm banks, and clinics are needing more gentlemen to step forward and make a donation. The apparent fall in donors has come about because those who do hand it over are allowed to be named and traced once the resulting kid turns 18 years old.

Good PR for sperm banks, the story got everywhere, and similarly, good news for wankers. In far less schoolboy-humour style, female egg donors can now receive up to £985, up from £750.00.

Game over for PlayStation

I imagine enquiries to the previously mentioned clinics went through the roof for a few hours this week as the PlayStation5 Network crashed. The media japed that geeks would have to jump back into the real world as the PS5 consoles became little more than expensive door stops until the network went back online again.

This was Bad PR for Sony in a few ways. It was not ideal that the network went down in the first place. Added to this, Sony refused to put out a comprehensive set of updates or the reason for the issue.

A lone Japanese Sony PlayStation account on the Twittering/X was all the confirmation the company gave of the issue. It then seemed to rely on the game-making companies themselves to spread the word to consumers.

A downtime tracking website logged 5,000 complaints about the issue and those pesky “internet sleuths” went on to claim it was a software update gone wrong. We shall never know, and the geeks won’t really care unless it keeps happening. We in the PR world care though, and it really was a communications fail.

Ikea and FortyWinks go to the mattresses

A little kookaburra from a land down under shared this next story. Who knew this column had such global appeal? G’day to all my Australian follower (note it’s not followers).

Everyone’s favourite silly-names-flat-pack furniture brand did an outdoor activation at Sydney Harbour. Ikea allegedly found Australia’s worst rough sleeper and built a furnished, glass-fronted box, kitted out with its bedroom gear so he could go and sleep in there. Ikea could prove its rooms were comfortable and the lad in question could get a good night’s sleep.

Along came FortyWinks, an Australian mattress making firm, and the cheeky scamps hijacked the stunt. It dropped off a mattress at the box, whacked a page onto its website crowing about it, and then dolloped the story all over its social media accounts.

It must have been a weird position for Ikea, given they are usually the upstarts challenging the norm, but they dealt with it using good grace and the kind of Scandi sinisterness that we have all come to know and love. I wouldn’t mess with Ikea… I fear for the FortyWinks CEO, who fronted up all the comms for his brand.

Good PR for both brands I reckon. It gave a twee story some edge, and the media over there loved it.

Sparks fly after fishy investigation

Sometimes I get sent a story and I just don’t get it. This is one of them.

The bit I get: Scotland has outlawed the practice of burying dead fish and covering the graves with seaweed on its beaches. Makes sense to me. Sounds horrid, and very smelly.

The bit I don’t get is why is everyone’s favourite electricity-eco-warrior, Dale Vince, is getting involved? Surely, he has enough fish to fry making sure that rival fans of his football team (Forest Green Rovers) don’t sneak meat products into his vegan-only football stadium?

Dale, using the name of Ecotricity in the public outing, was behind the revelation that the weird fish-burying practice is still going on in Bonnie Scotland. Apparently, the practice was absolutely fine until January 2024, so it’s not like it is an earth shattering revelation.

The family-run business that processes the fish opened its doors so TV cameras could come and see the new machine that replaces its old fish-burying ways. The business seemed a bit surprised at the attention, but were fairly open and honest and I quite liked the cut of their gib.

Dale Vince is not even Scottish so I really don’t get why he got involved or why it went out in the name of Ecotricity. I can only imagine the PR team’s faces when he was briefing them on the press release that he wanted drafting.

It is neither Good nor Bad PR, just odd PR.