Good PR of the week
 

Cake hotel goes down well
 

The world’s first hotel made of cake opened in Soho, London this week to promote Tate & Lyle Sugar’s new range of eight different sugars, handled by Mischief PR and produced by Helix 3D. The campaign is a complicated way to promote the range, but seems to have been well-received by both the media and the public.

On Thursday, invited guests were able to order room service delivered on vanilla sponge cushions, with edible windows and wall coverings throughout the hotel.

The project was created by more than 14 artists who spent almost 3,000 hours baking and decorating, using more than 600 kilograms of sugar in the process.

Inspired by regions from around the world, the eight new sugars inspired the eight “tasting rooms“, each created with a different sugar in the Taste Experience range.

The eight tasting rooms include a Mediterranean-inspired bedroom (with a caramel popcorn-filled bathtub), a Pirates of the Caribbean room with a giant treasure chest full of edible pearls and a South Pacific-inspired room, with an edible two-metre tall Easter Island statue.

The press release has more information. Thanks to JML’s Jonathon O’Connor for first mentioning this!

Give me your seat!
 

This week, the London Underground presented Kate Middleton with a tongue-in-cheek ‘Baby on Board’ badge, aiming to provide commuters with a simple way to spot pregnant passengers, allowing them to offer their seat without fear of causing offence.

During the Duchess’s visit to Baker Street tube station to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the transport network, Middleton was photographed wearing the badge, simultaneously providing media outlets around the world with a great press shot and the best promotion those behind the Underground initiative could have hoped for.

Thanks to Alex Mansell for this one!

Bad PR of the week
 

Standard’s slip
 

I tend not to take stabs at media titles, mostly because you don’t s**t where you eat, but given the severity of the Evening Standard’s mistake in tweeting its front page including details of the Budget before chancellor George Osborne had even begun his speech, I’ll make an exception.

According to this piece in The Guardian, as a result of the blunder, the Treasury is expected to change its arrangements for briefing the media on the budget in the future.

Despite immediate apologies being issued by the Standard, the paper is expected to be denied access to briefings given in advance of the year's two financial statements by the chancellor – the budget and the autumn statement. The person responsible has, according to editor Sarah Sands, been suspended while an investigation takes place.

The Office for Budget Responsibility – and as such, the prematurely-tweeted front page – announced a downgrade of the growth forecast for 2013 to 0.6 per cent, which “could be worth a fortune in the wrong hands in the City“.

Have you seen any good or bad PR?
 

Contact Rich Leigh with it by tweeting him @GoodandBadPR or by emailing rich@10yetis.co.uk throughout the week and we’ll happily credit you for your trouble.

Good and Bad PR is a feature on the blog of 10 Yetis PR Agency.