The United Kingdom slowly emerges from its summer slumber and the world of public relations evolves once more. What a profound start to this week’s Good and Bad PR. Come join me as I take a meander through the hits and misses of the last seven days.

Looking back in anger

The Gallagher brothers received the ultimate kiss of PR death. They received last week’s first Good PR slot. Fast forward seven days and it has all gone to pot for them.

Tickets went on sale on Saturday. The fanfare was high, the expectations even higher. All the systems failed in one way or another. Then along came surge-pricing. Oh dear. The muggle-moaning went into overdrive.

The band, or should that be, their management waited far too long before putting a statement out. Crisis comms fail 101. In the end, it took them four whole days before they said anything. When they did, it was very much laying the blame elsewhere, namely on management, ticket sellers and promoters.

The BBC did a bit of a deep dive into who the management, ticket sellers and promoters are and it turns out they are all pretty much connected through management companies and cross company deals.

In years to come, I expect the brothers are both honest enough to explain that it was all just a cash grab operation. For now though, they have gone from hero to zero in the space of around five days.

PJ Skandi

Everyone’s favourite Skandi store, IKEA has enjoyed a twee PR hit this week and we love it. If you pop into its stores in your PJ’s this Saturday and spend over £50 you get a free small breakfast and a £15 off voucher.

No half measures though, it has to be a full pyjama outfit, slippers optional. It is yet another PR hit for the flat pack furniture legends and shows the fun-loving, yet commercially aware, approach that the brand has become famous for.

On the same day they are also offering a kids eat free deal with every adult meal. This may be nothing new from what other big-brands are doing but the pyjama element means that it is guaranteed to get big ticket journo and social love. Great PR for IKEA.

Volvo does an emergency stop on EV

Another brand that we all assume is Skandi but is actually majority owned by a Chinese company is Volvo. They could do with some PR advice from IKEA after a torrid week in the media.

Following on from a similar announcement by Ford last month, Volvo has declared that it is moving away from its previous commitment to move to fully electric vehicle sales by 2030. The announcement attracted negative headlines and drew the brand into a rare political battle.

Many countries have imposed higher tariffs on products coming out of China. This is being cited as one of the reasons why Volvo has had to make the tough decision, because so many of its raw materials now come from China and the costs have soared.

It has been a hard year for Volvo so far, thanks to announcements like this, on top of it cutting its investment in EV car brand Polestar. Bad PR for the faux-Swedish car giant.

Upside down pineapple = love

Loveless Spaniards hit the headlines for all the right reasons this week. This is all down to a new craze where single Spanish people are encouraged to use a pineapple to find love.

Supermarket brand Mercadona became the unlikely venue for the hunt for love. A Spanish celeb said that people should go there between 7-8pm and pop an upside-down pineapple in their shopping trolley to let other shoppers know they were single and ready to mingle.

The idea went viral and hey presto, pineapple sales went through the roof. There is a small fly in the true-love ointment. Even the likes of the BBC reported that the craze is causing confusion with the swinging community (Google it from your safe space).

My extensive dark-web research tells me that the swinging community also uses an upside-down pineapple as its symbol of being not-so-single-but-still-ready-to-mingle. Who would have thought it? Great, sales-driving, PR campaign for pineapple and Mercadona.

Before they asked if they could, they need to ask if they should

I think we can all agree that this column brings good to the world. Quite often I try to use subtle attempts at humour to bring about real, positive, change.

Looking back at this column through time there have been a few topics that have cropped up more than once. Elon Musk being accused of tyrant-esque behaviour, Brewdog having a few brand issues and, obviously, Team Science cocking around with Dinosaurs.

This time it is a bunch of Texan scientists who are saying they have the cloning technology and DNA available to bring back a selection of currently extinct animals. The term is ‘de-extinction’ apparently.

The first three on their hit list are, the Tasmanian Devil (ok) the Dodo (ok) and, the Woolly Mammoth (wtf). Despite opposition from other global scientists, it is apparently now just a matter of time.

I can only guess that none of the Texan science crew have seen any of the Jurassic Park films. I also think we all know that there are enough billionaire tyrants out there who would fancy their chances of de-extincting, in a bad way.

Maybe Elon with a pet T-Rex, or even worse, famous but controversial figures through history being brought back to life. Just imagine, a fleet of 100 or so Cilla Black’s marauding round the UK countryside singing “Surprise Surprise” at random passers-by.

Another Bad PR for Team Science, let’s leave things alone shall we.