Good PR

Zombie proof

As it is Halloween this week, I thought I’d mention this recent story I’ve seen floating about on the likes of Huffington Post, Daily Mirror, Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, CENT and plenty of other sites. If you’ve been watching too much of The Walking Dead, like me, and have often wondered how you’d cope in a zombie apocalypse, the “Zombie Fortification Cabin” could be for you.

Perhaps you’ve often worried that your home is less of a safe haven away from the flesh-eating undead and more of a zombie-magnet. Tiger Log Cabins launched the “ZFC-1”, as they’re calling the cabin, in time for Halloween. It comes with a 10-year anti-zombie guarantee, so if you think the dead won’t become the living in the next 10 years or so, you should probably hold off buying yours.

It’s said to be secure enough to stop any zombies getting in, but it does have a whopping great price tag of just shy of £70k. Still, it has a loo and kitchen area so you could live in it (planning permission depending).

Anyway, this is a fantastic example of a company switching up an existing product to follow a theme and generate some media love. I’m sure site visitor numbers for the Tiger Log Cabins website will have gone through the roof. The fake reviews on the site for the Zombie Fortification Cabin are definitely worth a read too.

Murder test

Another stunt that was brought to my attention this week, this time video-based, was to mark the launch of the US legal drama ‘How to Get Away with Murder’. In the hidden camera stunt, four people were tested to see how far they’d go to cover up a crime they thought a close friend had committed.

This one reminds me a bit of the “Carlsberg puts friends to the test” stunt last year, which saw people call mates at 3am asking them to come to their rescue with a hefty sum of cash to bail them out of a poker game gone wrong.

In this new stunt, each friend is lured to a flat rigged with a hidden camera, where they are led to believe their mate is in trouble after an apparent violent incident the night before. They are tested to see if they will lie to police (actors) for their friend or hide evidence and help them make a getaway. It’s pretty cool and was picked up by the likes of the Daily Mail, Mirror and Metro; with over 60k views on YouTube so far. There was also a nice supporting survey, showing how many Britons would be willing to do jail time or lie to the police for a loved one.

Watch the video here....

Bad PR

Unsexy costume

If you’re heading out on the town or to any parties this Halloween, you’ll probably see the usual sexy vampires, sexy cats, sexy nurses and sexy witches or zombies that often grace these kinds of shindigs with their scantily-clad presence. Didn’t you get the memo? Halloween isn’t about looking terrifying, but rather scarily bare. 

So, sexy Halloween costumes aren’t a new thing and companies are always trying to cash in by making seriously unsexy things into saucy outfits. A quick Google image search for sexy Halloween costumes just threw up a sexy pizza slice outfit, for example. Alright, pizza is a bit sexy when you’re starving.

Anyway, this latest costume is a real shocker. Online retailer BrandsOnSale has launched the “Sexy Ebola Containment Suit".

I’m just going to let that sink in for a little while.

No, no, you heard me right. It’s $59.99 and features a short white dress, face shield, breathing mask, blue latex gloves and safety goggles.

Well, plenty of people were quick to react to the insensitivity of the online retailer and media outlets such as ABC news, Huffington Post, Mashable, Mail, Metro and plenty of other publications around the world picked up on it.

It follows a hoax where a “Sexy Breaking Bad Costume” listing was photo-shopped to look like a “Sexy Ebola Nurse Costume”. So, BrandsOnSale clearly thought there was market for this sort of thing.

Asda case

In other news, Asda is facing mass legal action after thousands of female employees at the supermarket chain claimed they were being paid less than men to do equally valuable jobs. The law firm Leigh Day said in April that it was representing 400 Asda employees, but since then the company has been approached by more than 19,000 people.

This could become the largest ever employment claim in the private sector. If Asda loses the claim, it could be forced to pay staff the different in earnings going back six years. That’s going to sting a bit!

Shannon Haigh, 10 Yetis, @ShazzaYeti on Twitter

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