Hails & Fails – June 11th 2021
It’s time for the Euros and the football tournament has rightly dominated headlines but there was still room for some fantastic no-footy PR campaigns too this week. The Spice Girls reunited to show some love to Pride, Tinder gave singletons some vaccine reassurance and Brazen client Showcase Cinemas gave footy fans a real Euros treat ahead of the home nations big games. It wasn’t a great week for The BAFTAs though, as they left a TV icon out of their ‘In Memoriam’ tribute.
HAILS
Spice Girls reunite for Pride
Victoria Beckham, Mel B, Emma Bunton, Melanie C and Geri Horner have reunited to launch their own special tees in celebration of Pride Month. The Spice Girls teamed up on their Instagram accounts to promote their special “Wannabe” T-shirts, in partnership with akt charity. The five stars said they are proud to work with the charity – which aims to combat LGBQT+ youth homelessness in the UK – for the third year in a row.
They even launched a new video, showing the former band all wearing their custom tees, with “proud and wannabe your lover” printed onto the front of them. Cue a media frenzy!
Tinder gives singletons their own covid badges
UK Tinder users can now display a badge on their profile to show if they’ve had their Covid-19 vaccine. Users of Match, Hinge, Bumble, Badoo, Plenty of Fish, OurTime and Muzmatch will also be able to use the badges, as part of a partnership with the government.
Already a hit in the USA, Tinder will be bringing the sticker function to its UK app in early June. Bumble is already letting users choose pandemic dating preferences like whether they want to go for a socially distanced walk or wear masks. Stating that you have had the Covid vaccine in dating app profiles has become increasingly popular and mentions of the word ‘vaccine’ in Tinder profiles have increased by 750% in the UK since the pandemic began. Loads of coverage for this story this week.
Showcase puts the Euros on the big screen and creates popcorn portraits
Footy fans were given a free ticket to the home nations’ big Euros matches when the cinema group announced it would be showing all England, Wales and Scotland games on their big screens – for free – this week.
To announce the fantastic offer Showcase also commissioned artist Nathan Wyburn to create images of the national teams star players out of popcorn…because, everything is better with the iconic cinema snack, right?
Cue tonnes of coverage and happy footy fans everywhere!
FAILS
The BAFTAs fail to mention Babs
It’s always emotional scenes when the BAFTAs pay tribute to stars we’ve lost over the past year.
This year, the Memoriam section during the ceremony honoured the likes of Helen McCrory, Dame Diana Rigg and Nikki Grahame – but viewers were left scratching their heads as to why Dame Barbara Windsor was not included.
The Carry On and EastEnders legend died in December after a battle with Alzheimer’s.
Fans were angry that she was absent from the BAFTA tribute, tweeting their rage across Twitter and other social media.
The official BAFTA Twitter account responded, explaining that Barbara had already been honoured during the Film Awards ceremony earlier this year. Not so sure that means she doesn’t deserve recognition in the main BAFTA ceremony though…
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