Well hello there public relations fans. Ready for this week’s dollop of Good and Bad PR? Off we go.

Sneaky Treasury

Rachel Reeves is having a torrid time after that budget. Whilst I think the chances of seeing any form of U-turn are currently far away, it is clear that she is still in a very tough position.

This week the British Retail Consortium (BRC) issued a public letter citing concerns about increased NI costs. Over 80 companies signed the letter and signatories came from some of the biggest brands in the UK. The likes of Marks and Spencer, John Lewis, Currys, Boots and many more well-known names popped their signature on the letter.

Classic lobbying and great PR for the BRC but the comms element that surprised me came from The Treasury. It was leaked that it had been secretly contacting the C-suites of the big brands when it got wind of the letter. They were trying to put across Reeves' defensive lines. It did not work.

It is, though, incredibly surprising that the Treasury’s back briefing was done with such openness that it leaked into the public domain, which is another blow for Reeves. Is this a sign that some elements of the civil-service have had enough already as they are usually the masters of behind-the-scenes chats staying just that. The first sign that Reeves has lost the dressing room maybe.

Bhatia’s back to work conundrum

Another boss who has potentially lost the dressing room is Raman Bhatia, the relatively new CEO of Starling Bank. His communications are getting leaked all over the shop by unhappy staff.

Bhatia wants staff who are currently on a hybrid working model back into the office for at least 10 days per month. The staff are having none of it. One of the reasons why this is Bad PR lies firmly at the door of its internal communications folk.

The beautifully crafted message had one fatal flaw. The Starling Bank offices can’t actually house that volume of staff. HR had to send out a follow up missive to address concerns about a lack of parking, desk and catering in the existing offices. The call for a 10 day in-office return to work has triggered resignations galore and even talk of potential union action.

Jabs at Jags

Jaguar has had a shocker of a week. Rarely has a rebrand gone so badly. Not since Coke messed around with its recipe has something new triggered so many negative column inches.

The branding switcheroo is said to be helping the car giant usher in the new electric era. A day after the rebrand was announced two incidents blew holes in its launch.

The first was, alongside the trumpeting of its new electric era, came an announcement from Ford that it was shedding nearly 1,000 jobs from one of its own electric car plants.

It wasn’t all bad news for Jaguar though. Andrew Tate and Elon Musk threw their own considerable branding knowledge into the debate and said they did not like it. Maybe that new brand is not so bad after all.

The Sad PR news of the week was that Jaguar’s most famous owner, former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, had died.

Here's the 1990's People's Champ beautifully taking down a young looking John Bercow, make sure you watch 'till the end:

The Ratrace

All this talk of angry drivers reminded me of a Team Science story from this week. Fed up of trying to cure serious illnesses and alike, it has now emerged that scientists from Virginia, USA, have been teaching rats to drive and they bloody love it.

We are told that the research aims to try and understand the brains’ ability to learn when placed in a stimulating environment. Rats learned to drive far more quickly when placed in an environment that has lots going on, compared to rats who do little more than watch daytime TV and the shopping channels.

Team Science also revealed that the lab-based vermin also loved revving the engines of their little, handmade, rat cars. In my head, the rats are no better than the Kappa tracksuit wearing chavs who used to race around the council estate that I grew up on. Revving their Vauxhalls and shouting “you’ve been Nova-taken” by anyone they drove past. I am that rat… sigh.