Hails & Fails – April 16th 2021
As the UK heads into its first weekend with shops, pubs and restaurants open in months, PR campaigns reflected the excitement this week. Tesco won hearts and minds by helping out pubs, Gymbox celebrated the reopening of gyms nationwide and Heineken put smiles on the faces of those wanting both a pint and a haircut. Not such a great week for National Rail though, as their hasty tribute to the late Prince Philip caused real problems.
HAILS
Tesco encourages the nation to pop to their local
Tesco won widespread admiration this week when it took out a series of media adverts to remind its shoppers to support their local.
‘Pop to your local if you can,’ was printed on top of a pint of beer and appeared in media everywhere. ‘Pubs have had it tough this year. That’s why, for once, instead of telling you about our fantastic deals, we’re using this space to ask you to support them instead (as long as you feel safe to do so). Because right now, every little helps.”
The brilliant campaign was widely welcomed on social channels, as public and media congratulated the supermarket giant on a very smooth move.
Gymbox Takes Back the Reins from Joe Wicks
Gymbox celebrated the return of gym goers with a seriously high intensity ad campaign this week.
As the reopening of gyms on 12 April got underway, the fitness group hailed gyms as a place “where ballerinas come to box” and “the powerlifters come to pole dance”.
Their third ad quite rightly won the most attention, however, reading: “Thanks Joe Wicks but we’re back and we’ll take it from here”. Brilliant – and loads of coverage to boot!
Heineken Haircuts – we’ll drink to that
Beer brand Heineken have set up ‘Heineken Haircuts‘ – giving lucky punters the chance to have their haircut by professionals while sipping on a nice cold pint in a beer garden. The drinking place-meets-salon initiative is made up of several units parking up across London, Manchester and Birmingham and cuts will be done by none other than celebrity hairstylist Michael Douglas. Brilliant, fun and loads of media covering it.
FAILS
National Rail Go Grey and Spark Fury
National Rail were forced to change their website back to its standard colours, after their greyed-out tribute to Prince Philip caused a backlash among visually-impaired customers.
The organisation tried to pay tribute to the duke’s life following his death last week, by greying out their website in his honour – ditching the usual colours and turning it monochrome.
But, it all went disastrously wrong, with many visually impaired customers complaining they could no longer read the timetables – which is really the only reason people visit the website in the first place. We’re pretty sure Prince Philip, famed for his dry sense of humour, would be laughing his head off…
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