The crash on the Smiler ride at Alton Towers last year was not the finest hour for Merlin Entertainments. When 16 people were injured last June as a moving car crashed into a stationary car it could very easily have been curtains for the theme park – after all, isn’t...
To enjoy being walked on in high heels is, apparently, a thing – though even among fetishists, I imagine we’re talking about a minority of dedicatees. Certainly accountancy giant PwC didn’t seem to enjoy the experience over the last week. If you missed the extensive coverage, a receptionist working at the firm...
It’s an unfortunate reality that most women experience casual sexism as an everyday occurrence. A yell from a white van man as she walks to work, or a presumption she will undertake the lion’s share of household chores; women in modern Britain are wearily accustomed to being the subject of...
Recently, a woman posted a very disturbing story on Facebook breastfeeding activism forum Free to Feed, where she alleged a security guard in a Leicester branch of discount retail chain Primark forcibly removed her nine-month-old daughter from her breast when she would not stop breastfeeding her, and...
The tragic incident at Alton Towers earlier this month has been all over the news. The crash on the park’s Smiler ride left 16 people injured, four very seriously, and immediately hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Luckily no one died during the incident, however, it was still...
I was interviewed for an article in The Lawyer magazine today about how law firms – and in particular Gibson Dunn - should deal with a crisis. Gibson Dunn is a top 30...
I’ve read this week’s papers behind my hands. For a PR, watching the steady implosion of Brand Clarkson is a painful experience. Can it get any worse for Britain's king of controversy? Last week’s blog focussed on the ‘fracas’ (and perhaps allowed me to indulge my Hammond crush a little)...
Acronyms can easily turn a perfectly acceptable marketing slogan or business name into a laughing stock – for example, the Authorised Service Shop (ASS), the Wisconsin Tourism Federation (WTF), Seattle’s South Lake Union Trolley (SLUT) or Microsoft’s Critical Update Notification Tool (now wisely renamed the Critical Updated Notification Utility). It then...
Most people assume that, when it comes to reputational damage, you’re only really at risk if you’re intentionally behaving badly. There’s an odd expectation of karma whereby if you’re misusing Twitter or getting into scrapes that can be digitally documented then you’re taking the kind of risks with your reputation...
As the results of the Scottish referendum were coming in last Friday there was a real sense of excitement all across the country. Whatever happened, history was about to be made and all of us wanted to feel like we were a part of it. However, unfortunately for one business,...
