Well hello there PR fans. Andy Barr reporting in for the latest slice of good and bad public relations news. There has been a summer break so the editorial controllers can recharge their batteries, so best we don’t hang around and just get on it.

Good PR of the week

New Who

Striding confidently into the world of good public relations, the BBC dominated every social media and news platform last weekend with its successful teasing and seeding of the new Dr Who.

Peter Capaldi emerged from the dry ice and naff sets that Dr Who has become famous for and the whole PR world shouted “Fuckety bye bye” to him ever coming back for a new series of The Thick Of It. Good for Dr Who fans (saddos), bad for PR and media folk who loved Malcolm Tucker.

Designs on Porsche

Moving on to the world of luxury automotives let’s all wave our white wine spritzers in the general direction of German super-car-makers, Porsche.

Porsche hit the 5m likes/fans/facebook whatevers on The Facebook and decided to celebrate by letting its fans crowd-source a new car design.

For me, this would be like giving my kids access to my favourite Sharpies and pointing at our bright white wall in the living room. Still, the fans came through and despite “go-faster” stripes being included, the new Facebook 911 was created.

Marmite again

Crowd-sourcing leads me beautifully into my next good PR story. Many think years of planning go into every one of these beautiful columns, but I am sad to reveal that I usually give a yell out on The Twitter and see what people suggest I write about.

Step forward @allThingsIC, @thomasKnorpp, @digiTim and even my old BFF @RichLeighPR (anyone remember him?) who came back with the new Marmite TV Ad.

The ad is great but the coverage surrounding it is even better, largely driven by the fact some real-ale, cardigan-wearing type at the advertising police has decided to investigate it ‘cos a few lefties were offended. Bore off, it’s a great ad and it is getting lots of media love. Go Team Marmite … personally, I hate the gooey mess, it reminds of the stuff that fell out of my bottom the time I got food poisoning in Mexico.

Bad PR of the week

Cowell cock up

Bad PR has this week been dominated by Simon Cowell  getting his mate’s wife pregnant, allegedly, etc, etc. He also got a media boot because everyone’s favourite camp Irishman, Louis Walsh, has decided he is leaving X Factor after the next series and suspicions are rife that it is Cowell-related.

Bog off!

Finally, my favourite bad PR this week has to be the Satis luxury toilet. It retails at £5.7K and comes with an app that can help you control the bidet, flush and toilet seat options. No really.

Anyway, researchers have discovered that the app could be hacked and someone could actually control the toilet while someone else was on it. That’s right people, picture the scene: you are dropping the kids off at the pool and low and behold, a rogue bog-app operator could hit the bidet function and ruin your hole day.

I will leave you to ponder the severity of this happening. This kind of stuff keeps me awake at night.

Have you seen any good or bad PR?

Contact Andy Barr with it by tweeting him @10Yetis or by emailing andy@10Yetis.co.uk throughout the week and he’ll happily credit you for your trouble