Hails & Fails – May 26th 2023
While the nation enjoys the last few days of calm before the storm – yep Love Island is back on TVs in a little over a week – there have been some great PR campaigns to show some love to over the last seven days.
The UK’s most trusted sleep brand Silentnight, a Brazen client, gave Britain its first ever bed vending machine, high street bargain supermarket Lidl poked fun at M&S and charity GambleAware launched a ‘crushed’ billboard.
It was a terrible week for Facebook owner Meta though, after the company was hit with record €1.2bn fine by the EU.
HAILS
The dream machine launches for bleary-eyed commuters
Weary London commuters were greeted with the world’s first mattress vending machine this week, thanks to leading sleep brand Silentnight, a Brazen client.
The ‘Dream Machine’ was located inside the capital’s King’s Cross station, dispensing boxed mattresses to bleary-eyed visitors at the press of a button.
Designed to help over-tired commuters get a new mattress and show that getting the perfect night’s sleep has never been easier – the head-turning stunt came off the back of a study which revealed 32 per cent of Brits are sleeping on mattresses well past their best.
Cue blanket national news coverage – and lots of happy commuters!
Lidl pokes fun at M&S in ‘Piggy Pickle’ hilarity
Lidl poked fun at supermarket rival M&S by wading into a dispute over the name of flavours at a local ice cream parlour.
Fabio’s Gelato, in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, was forced to rename its Percy Pig-inspired offering last week after M&S sent a letter asking them to stop using the name ‘Perky Pig’.
But now the saga has seen Lidl getting involved – in a not so subtle dig at M&S, the German retailer has asked Fabio’s to create a new flavour with its Henry Hippo sweets and has even given them permission to name the ice cream Henry Hippo.
Fruity…and plenty of coverage to boot.
The crushed billboard offering hope to gambling addicts
A new ‘crushed’ billboard from charity, GambleAware, has been unveiled in London to help show the impact of gambling addictions.
The crumpled billboard went live outside the Emirates Stadium to coincide with the weekend football match and was unveiled by former Arsenal player and mental health advocate, Paul Merson – who has openly spoken about his own struggles with a 35-year-long gambling addiction.
The stadium location was chosen after research revealed people in London were twice as likely to experience problems with gambling compared to the rest of Great Britain.
A clever initiative which has won lots of acclaim this week.
FAILS
Meta needs to do better
Meta – the company which owns Facebook – has been hit with a record €1.2bn fine by the European Union, for mishandling people’s data when it was transferred from Europe to the United States.
While Meta said they’d appeal – calling it an “unjustified and unnecessary” decision – it is the biggest fine ever levied for breach of the general data protection regulations (GDPR), which require the data holder’s permission before using their personal information.
Meta has incurred the fine for transferring EU users’ data to the United States for processing, despite a 2020 verdict handed down by the highest EU court saying the data was insufficiently protected from US spying agencies.
Ouch!
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