Hails & Fails – August 4th 2023
August. The month of warmer weather and summer holidays… right? Right?!
If, like us, you’re daydreaming of escaping to somewhere warmer but have nothing booked, don’t worry, because we have some fabulous PR campaigns to transport you to the wonderful world of PR in an instant. Enjoy!
This week, Samsung got the nation smiling, the England and Wales Cricket Board raised awareness of Alzheimer’s and KFC held the world’s first fry funeral. While Warner Bros have gone from pink to red with a major PR fail.
HAILS
The million-dollar selfie
To launch a nationwide selfie competition, Samsung has recruited self-confessed selfie King Rylan Clark to recreate the most iconic celebrity selfies of all time.
The competition is simple. Head to a Samsung store between now and the 24th of September and take a selfie with the new Galaxy X Flip 5 or Z Fold 5 for the chance to win half a million pounds.The creative idea is even simpler. Challenge a celeb that takes over 100 selfies a day to recreate the most iconic selfies of all time from Lionel Messi’s selfie in bed with his World Cup trophy, Kendall Jenner’s heart hair selfie and Lewis Capaldi’s towel selfie when he was celebrating six weeks at number one.
Saaaaaay Saaaaaamsung!
Maximum support for Alzheimer’s Society
England’s players wore wrong shirts on the third day of the fifth and final men’s Ashes test this Saturday, to show their support for the Alzheimer’s Society.
As the team stood in a line on the ground prior to play starting, it became clear that they were in fact wearing a different team-mates name on their back; bringing to life the confusion often experienced by people living with dementia.
Teaming up with the Alzheimer’s Society for the first time, the England and Wales Cricket board aimed to raise vital funds and draw awareness to the heartbreaking disease with the stunt.
This campaign has really hit us for six with it’s simplicity and powerful hashtag #cricketshouldbeunforgettable
KFC pay their respects
KFC Canada has launched their new and better fries with a ‘Fry Funeral’ to officially say goodbye to their ‘Soggy Fry Era’.
Taking fan criticism with a pinch of salt and a generous dash of creativity, the fast-food giant created a funeral procession to make it’s way through the streets of Toronto, with white and red hearses reading “RIP OLD KFC FRIES” and a fry-filled coffin.
For loyal fans unable to attend, a live-streamed funeral was held on the 1st of August.
Who knew a funeral could be so fun? And who knew you could bring snacks?
FAILS
Warner Bro backlash
After months of jaw dropping Barbie PR success, Warner Bros have been publicly criticised for replying to insensitive “Barbenheimer” social posts featuring atomic bombs.
“Barbenheimer” content is the mashing together of box office hits Barbie and Oppenheimer which were released last month on the same date, seeing equally staggering success (over a combined $235.5 million in their first weekend!)
The official Barbie Movie Twitter account replied to one edited image of Barbie star Margot Robbie and Oppenheimer actor Cillian Murphy in front of a backdrop of flames with “it’s going to be a summer to remember”. And in response to a meme showing Robbie’s hair replaced with a mushroom cloud, the account commented “This Ken is a stylist”.
The comments have caused outrage in several territories, particularly Japan, due to the highly sensitive nature of the event which killed hundreds of thousands of people, instantly, in the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Warner Bros has now apologised and Barbie is still scheduled to be released on 11 August in Japan – five days after the 78th anniversary of the attack.
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