Hails & Fails – January 27th 2023
See you later, January – it’s been emotional (and long). Next week we’ll be saying hello to February and we’re already ushering in the new month with some incredibly creative PR campaigns.
Frozen food brand Birds Eye goes royal for Veganuary, supermarket Aldi sent buses to its rivals and women’s charity Refuge dumped bad apples at Scotland Yard. It was a terrible week for Meta though after its removal of Donald Trump’s ban faced a stern backlash.
HAILS
Birds Eye Trolls the Royal Family for Veganuary
Birds Eye takes the royal mickey out of the Royal family with a very funny Veganuary campaign.
Using lookalikes and famous photographer Alison Jackson to reimagine royal family scenes, viewers see William and Kate tucked up in bed reading Prince Harry’s controversial biography Spare, and King Charles & Queen Consort Camilla eating a takeaway vegan burger at Buck House
The spoof campaign was created to promote the brand’s new plant-based range. It’s clearly a winning formula – Brazen used Royal lookalikes to launch the new wilko store in Kensington back in the day and won plaudits galore for that Kate & Wilko stunt.
And don’t the media just love a right Royal event (even if it is lookalikes)?
Aldi sends buses to rival stores
Shoppers received free bus rides to the “cheapest store in town”, after Aldi was crowned the UK’s Cheapest Supermarket for the second year.
The cheeky stunt by the supermarket saw temporary bus stops placed outside Tesco, Sainsbury’s and other supermarkets before a branded bus, with its own conductor, picked up shoppers and dropped them at a nearby Aldi store.
Hilarious and disruptive – it’s won headlines everywhere this week.
Refuge dumps rotten apples at police HQ
1,071 rotten apples were dumped outside the Met’s headquarters, New Scotland Yard, this week to protest at sex allegations against police officers.
Women’s charity Refuge orchestrated the stunt to highlight the huge issue of abuse allegations involving Met Police staff.
The force is currently reviewing allegations of violence against women made against 1,071 police officers and staff members.
It comes on the heels of former Met officer David Carrick admitting dozens of rapes and sexual offences against 12 women.
And the message certainly hit home!
FAILS
Meta feels the Trump backlash
Donald Trump can rejoin the social masses after Meta lifted his banning order on Facebook and Instagram this week.
Who knows if parent company Meta expected the ferocity of the public backlash but, one thing is for certain, company bosses will be busy fielding complaints and trying to handle some serious crisis PR as a result of the decision.
News of Mr Trump’s reinstatement was quickly lambasted by politicians, angry members of the public and activist organisations. There is widespread criticism that the notorious former US President could once again use the platforms to repeat false claims that he won the 2020 election.
Watch this space…
Want more information? Contact us here