Good PR

Marvellous matchmaking

Geniuses don’t want for much in life; expect maybe another genius to snuggle with in the evenings whilst they read books that the rest of us could only dream of understanding.

Well, the dating site Match.com has picked up some really good coverage on the likes of the Mail Online and CNN after announcing a partnership with high-IQ society Mensa. Mensa Match will be a new service that enables people with extraordinary intelligence and gigantic brains to meet and, hopefully, fall in love and make exceptionally talented and gifted children.

Match.com will allow members to advertise how oh-so-clever they are by adding a Mensa badge to their profile. Those unsure of whether or not they’re up there with the likes of Quentin Tarantino and Steve Martin in terms of intelligence – both Mensa members – can take the Mensa admission test for just $1 from now until 6 July but they have to be Match.com members.

Match.com also released an infographic to show the top 20 smartest cities in the US and highlighted a survey linking intelligence to attractiveness (so it wasn’t overly promotional and also had a newsworthy hook).

Nice work Match.com and Mensa!

Bad PR

Payday-lender porkies

When Wonga hits the headlines, it’s rarely good news. Most payday lenders have a bad reputation, usually due to sky-high interest rates or poor practice, but Wonga has really gone and done it this time. The lender has to pay £2.6m in compensation to 45,000 customers after sending them threatening letters from fake law firms chasing debts that were owed.

The letters from non-existent law firms that were sent to customers in arrears threatened legal action and, in some instances, Wonga even had the cheek to add fees for these letters to customer’s accounts. I know this all sounds made up, but it’s as true as the grass is green. I kid you not.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said that Wonga had been guilty of “unfair and misleading debt collection practices.” Unfair and misleading indeed!

This all happened between October 2008 and November 2010 and the letters were sent to people under the names of “Chainey, D’Amato & Shannon” (nothing to do with me, honest) and “Barker and Lowe Legal Recoveries”.

Wonga has since apologised, but will that be enough? The tactic may have ended nearly four years ago, but it still happened and there’s no getting away from that. Needless to say, the story has been splashed across most news channels and papers so the shameful ploy is well and truly out there for the public to hear about. Will it stop people getting payday loans? Nah. Will it stop them going to Wonga for the loans? Maybe!

Suarez bites

In other news, striker Luis Suarez’s gnashers have got him into trouble for the third time. In Uruguay’s World Cup match against Italy on Tuesday, Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini claimed that he was bitten on the shoulder by Suarez.

The marks on his shoulder when he pulled his shirt aside to show the ref was pretty damning evidence that this was true, as is the video footage of the match. Suarez now faces a lengthy ban which could see him miss the rest of the World Cup if he’s found guilty. Suarez maintains that he “bumped” into the other player. Yeah, tooth-first. Sure.

Shannon Haigh, 10 Yetis

Seen any good or bad PR recently, you know what to do, @10Yetis on The Twitter or andy@10yetis.co.uk on email