The Blagger’s Blog – a weekly roundup of media news, sans effort

Quote of the week

“We already miss you. Thank you and goodbye.”

European Council President, Donald Tusk, commenting on the triggering of Article 50 by Downing Street this week, kicking off the process of the UK leaving the European Union.

Weekly high

This week HSBC announced it will begin offering customers a choice of ten genders in a move some groups have labelled a PR stunt, whilst others welcomed a step in the right direction for transgender rights. The options will include Ind- individual; Pr- person; and Mre- mystery.

Weekly low

We’re sure Adventure Island UK meant well, somehow, when the UK’s No.1 Free Admission Theme Park decided to invite a gay man to come and ‘lend a hand’ removing homophobic graffiti. Understandably, though, it didn’t come across as anything other than a #PRFail.

Need to know

Google, Microsoft, and Facebook have agreed to create new tools that can identify and remove terrorist and other extremist online materials.

BBC Radio 4’s Today programme veteran Gary Richardson was the focus of complaints this week after seeming to promote Brut aftershave on the show, leading to a formal apology as the broadcaster tried to distance itself from the offending comments.

Just in case you missed us

This week we unveiled the latest edition of our monthly newsletter, John Watson’s Case Notes. For March our MD Rick Guttridge asks ‘Just how much is your CEO really worth to your business’; we look at the ways brands are using Amazon Alexa; asked academics, business leaders and interns for advice on sandwich year placements; analysed travel PR disasters and exemplary crisis management; and updated the world on our latest in house news.

Looking for more advice on PR, social media, and marketing? Why not get in contact or submit a brief to inject a little ingeniousness into your brand.