Octopus PR News June 2010

30 June 2010
FIFA responds with toothless PR display
Public relations commentators have shown a FIFA spokesman the red card after a dismal PR performance at a press conference by sidestepping questions about refereeing blunders during the England vs Germany and Argentina vs Mexico World Cup matches.

25 June 2010
Subway shouts PR message from rooftops
US food chain Subway is literally shouting its PR message from the rooftops after it set up a sandwich shop to serve workers on the 26th floor of the new tower at the World Trade Center construction site.

22 June 2010
Breakfast badgers bask in PR limelight
US food giant Kellogg's is milking a PR opportunity to the full after a family of brazen badgers became star attraction at an Isle of Wight hotel by turning up every night to feast on their favourite breakfast cereal.

18 June 2010
Starbucks counts Costa lost PR war
An advertising watchdog ruling has left PR executives at Starbucks frothing at the mouth after it rejected a claim by the coffee giant that an advertising campaign by UK competitor Costa Coffee unfairly boasted that people preferred its coffee over its US rivals.

16 June 2010
Dragon reject toasts PR wine success
A faltering entrepreneur rejected by all five panellists on the BBC Dragons' Den show is having the last laugh after his wine-in-a-glass invention hit the shelves of M&S stores, grabbing another round of extensive press coverage.

11 June 2010
BP paid search PR propaganda
Public relations commentators are backing BP's latest PR strategy to manage the Gulf oil spill crisis, in which the company has been buying up Google search terms to direct visitors to its official crisis response page.

9 June 2010
PR espionage on social sites
PR teams monitoring social networking sites for customer grievances against their clients have been accused of spying on conversations and making unsolicited calls in a bid to resolve customer complaints.

4 June 2010
Charities the masters of reputation
PR agencies are urging their clients to look at the way charities manage their reputations after new research showed that they are far more highly regarded than private companies and public organisations.

2 June 2010
Council gets expensive lesson in PR
The first lesson a PR expert should be teaching a local authority when he arrives to review its communications department will be to keep its mouth shut about its expenditure on consultancy fees.