Hails & Fails – March 14th 2025
It has been a week where Liam Gallagher denied he was set to join Celebrity Traitors, Michelle Keegan became a first-time mum to baby ‘Palma’ (thank God she wasn’t a fan of Benidorm, eh?), Prince William announced he was going to Estonia without his wife…and we were reminded that good things, at least in the PR world, really do come in threes.
Your three for glee this week saw the video for veteran author Jaqueline Wilson’s new book blow up on Tik Tok, M&S win plaudits for its bold new cereal and Brazen ace it with huge coverage for client Showcase Cinemas thanks to a pink-hued PR campaign (and some ice cream). It wasn’t such a good week for tech giant Google though, after they suffered an embarrassing fail on their Chromecast devices.
HAILS
Picture Imperfect proves perfect for TikTok
Acclaimed author Dame Jacqueline Wilson launched her new book ‘Picture Imperfect’, an adult sequel to her 1999 children’s book ‘The Illustrated Mum’, with a hilarious video that won TikTok fame this week.
The novel, set to be released in August this year, will reunite readers with Dolphin and Star, who spent their childhood dealing with their mother, Marigold’s bipolar disorder.
Announcing the book on Tik Tok, Wilson unveiled a statue of herself covered in tattoos, in Brighton…and must have then spent the rest of the day trawling through the thousands of positive comments on social media.
M&S launches ‘Only 1 Ingredient’ Cornflakes
M&S has just stormed the cereal aisle with its boldest breakfast flex yet: one-ingredient Corn Flakes.
No sugar. No salt. No additives. Just corn.
They’ve slapped the recipe right on the front of the box, throwing down the gauntlet for ingredient transparency, which is bound to shake-up the cereal industry.
Cue a flurry of consumers praising the move towards simplicity and transparency in food products.
Brazen snags mass coverage for cinema brand thanks to free ice-cream on Barbie Day
Brazen client Showcase Cinemas chain threw in free ice-cream to celebrate a one-off screening of the blockbuster Barbie movie on National Barbie Day (March 9th) – and won mass footfall as well as mass coverage.
Brazen’s secured a phenomenal 147 pieces of coverage with a total reach of 35.2m thanks to the story announcing the news.
We’re guessing Barbie would call that authentic?
FAIL
Google’s Chromecast causes red faces and rage
Google Chromecast users were in a fury this week after two days of TV streaming issues.
There are more than 100m of these devices worldwide, with owners unable to connect them to their televisions for two days this week – meaning they could not use streaming services like Netflix and YouTube on the big screen.
Apparently, the problem could have been caused by an expired Google-owned intermediate certificate authority, which had lapsed after 10 years of validity.
Oops. Cue red faces at Google Towers.
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