Good PR

Chance the Rapper is clearly in the Christmas spirit and has landed a whole load of positive media coverage for his generosity this week.

Scrolling through Mashable, I read how the rap artist had given 300 pairs of unreleased Jordan Retro 11s (they’re super cool, $200 trainers for those of you who might not know) to some high-school students in his home town of Chicago.

He gave them away at his monthly Open Mike night which he runs for young people through his charity SocialWorks and the Chicago Public Library. The night is named after his mentor Mike Hawkins who was a poet and activist that passed away three years ago and Monday was the anniversary of his death.

Every single attendee at the event was gifted a pair of the Jordans to mark the anniversary and other people won’t be able to get their hands on them until Saturday (9 December).

It’s not the first time Chance has given something back; he donated one of his Grammy awards to Chicago's DuSable Museum of African American History and set up a $2.2million fund for Chicago Public Schools’ arts programs. What a guy!

Mashable, Billboard, MTV and loads of other titles picked up on his generosity, along with plenty of others.

Bad PR

Personally, the idea of going on a cruise doesn’t really float my boat (sorry). After reading a recent news story, I’m now even more put off the idea.

One of the largest cruise ships in the world, Ovation of the Seas, has been in the news this week after 200 or more of its passengers were struck down with a vomiting and diarrhoea bug.

The ship, which is owned by Royal Caribbean, was travelling from Singapore to Australia on a two-week trip when the illness struck and although passengers have been heard saying that the crew did all they could in terms of hygiene, it didn’t seem to slow down the spread.

Videos of the hallways being sprayed and sanitised on the ship were circulating on social media and staff put hand sanitisation regimes in place to slow down and prevent the spread, as well as putting a stop to finger food (a prime suspect for the spread of germs).

Although the illness was likely brought on board by a passenger and then spread around rapidly, rather than being caused by food poising, it’s still bad press that the cruise firm could do without.

I’ve seen it reported on the Metro, Mail, Express, The Sun and other media outlets around the world, so although it may be nothing the crew did wrong, there’ll be some people who choose to give the Ovation of the Seas and Royal Caribbean (or just cruising altogether) a wide berth in the future and jump ship to another provider (or a very much land-based hotel).

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