Hails & Fails – February 25th 2022
March is on the horizon and there have been some fantastic PR campaigns this week in preparation for (fingers crossed) longer days and better weather. Movie franchise Spiderman rolled back the years with an iconic photo, Starbucks showed how much their staff care and Arsenal FC stars went all out to support local businesses. It was a difficult week for Clean Air Greater Manchester however, after a county-wide sign initiative went spectacularly wrong.
HAILS
Spiderman goes multi-generational
Three generations of Spiderman stars have posed together for an iconic photo on the official Spider-Man: No Way Home social media pages.
All three stars – Tom Holland, Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield – were snapped pointing at each other in the style of the classic meme. The fun image was issued to announce the film’s arrival on digital on March 22 and on 4K UHD and Blu-ray on April 12.
The original image copies an iconic shot from the 1967 Spider-Man cartoon episode Double Identity where Spiderman’s villains attempt to impersonate the hero. It won tonnes of coverage as you’d expect.
Starbucks worker hailed a hero
Starbucks won widespread praise this week after a barista wrote a secret message on a cup for a teenage girl who they believed might have been in need of help.
The 18-year-old girl visited a Starbucks café this week but she was approached by a man who started talking to her. The barista discreetly took action by giving the teen “an extra hot chocolate someone forgot to pick up” but secretly used the cup to offer the teen help if she needed it. The message read: “Are you okay? Do you want us to intervene? If you do, take the lid off the cup.”
It turned out the teenage girl was absolutely fine and did not feel unsafe and later told the barista she was okay. But people everywhere have jumped on the story lavishing praise on the barista and Starbucks and expressing how grateful they are that people look out for others. It’s blown up in a hugely positive way online too!
Arsenal FC stars stay local
Arsenal star Aaron Ramsdale has offered a hand to a local businesses – supporting the Holloway Road fish bar ‘The Chip Inn’ – based around the corner from the team’s stadium.
The film sees Aaron feature in a 60-second advert alongside Gunners legend David Seaman.
The advert will be aired across the fish bar’s and Arsenal’s club channels – including the stadium’s big screens.
The advert is the fourth instalment in a series of local businesses pairing up with members of the Arsenal men’s and women’s teams to raise awareness of their services and drive footfall on and around matchday.
Alongside the players, a variety of local businesses feature in the campaign, some of which are well known to Arsenal fans and others that need the extra support and awareness. The story has been warmly welcomed by media this week.
FAILS
Clean Air Zone signs across Greater Manchester give wrong date
More than 1,000 Clean Air Zone signs erected around Greater Manchester will have to be altered with stickers after the scheme was paused.
Transport bosses now need to undertake the arduous yet necessary job of amending 1,194 signs which wrongly state the scheme to charge high-emission vehicles will start on May 30. Clean Air Greater Manchester said a cost for the job to plaster over a section of the signage, due to start ‘in the coming weeks’, had yet to be agreed.
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