Hails & Fails – March 5th 2021
HAILS
Cadbury Celebrates 50 years of Creme Eggs by launching a beer
Cadbury won headlines this week by launching a limited edition creme egg flavoured beer.
The chocolate-makers teamed up with a brewery to make its first ever creme egg beer – a sweet flavoured stout – to celebrate the Creme Egg’s 50th anniversary.
The beer uses malted barley, oats, wheat and milk sugar to mirror the creamy texture of the gooey chocolate eggs. It’s certainly been a hit with the media…and reminds us of when Brazen client Chicago Town won headlines everywhere last year with its own Show Me The Honey beer.
Dolly turns Jolene into Vaccine
Country legend Dolly Parton celebrated her Covid-19 vaccine by reimagining one of her most iconic songs. Dolly sang an adapted version of Jolene before receiving the shot in Nashville this week.
“Vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, I’m begging of you, please don’t hesitate,” Parton sang in a video, released on her social channels and picked up by media everywhere, encouraging others to follow suit.
The singer has already been credited with helping fund the Moderna vaccine after donating $1m (£716,000) to Vanderbilt University Medical Centre.
Morrisons launch £20 Mother’s Day ‘breakfast in bed’ box
Supermarket giant Morrisons this week launched a luxury Breakfast In Bed Box for Mums on Mother’s Day, including items like pancakes, British bacon and sausages, maple syrup, orange juice, white chocolate cookies and more. They will even hand deliver the £20 Mum’s Day treat to anywhere in the UK on Mother’s day.
The media loved it and the initiative won widespread national coverage – with orders, reportedly, flying in. Simple and hugely effective.
FAILS
Pontins Blacklist upsets the Irish and causes controversy
Pontins caused outrage this week when a blacklist they use to exclude Traveller and Gypsy families from their holiday sites was revealed, and included some of the most common Irish surnames – meaning thousands potentially banned from their sites on the basis of a surname.
Surnames such as Murphy, Walsh and O’Brien were all on the list but are held by tens of thousands of people and are extremely common among the Irish community in the UK regardless of background. The list, leaked by media, was uploaded to the Pontins intranet under the heading “Undesirable Guests”, instructing call handlers that people using these names were “unwelcome”. The public backlash was swift and direct. Ouch!
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