In March, we marked the anniversary of the first UK wide lockdown and for many of us, a whole year of working from home. Outside of ‘you’re on mute’ and loungewear, nothing says lockdown quite like a Downing Street Briefing, so with another busy month behind us, it’s high time we stepped up to the podium to give you the full rundown…
If anyone knows about the importance of hygiene in the fight against COVID it’s our client, Astonish, and in March we shot and launched cleaning challenge and germ myth-busting videos starring GBBO semi-finalist Briony Williams to promote the brand’s new concentrated disinfectant. Briony would probably have a few ideas for the Peculiar and Preposterous Pie competition we launched for Vale of Mowbray, calling for weird and wonderful pie recipes from children aged 5-16. We’re also calling for entries for a Nationwide Building Society Coin for Respect competition, as part of a wider Respect campaign which had some of the Hatchlings filming at St George’s Park and Wembley Stadium.
I’ll now hand over to WWF, Burger King and Oprah who have been busy this month too.
To kick off the month’s awareness days, it was World Wildlife Day on 3rd March and the WWF was joined by brands and sports teams alike in removing animals from its branding. The result was a visually impactful message about the reduction in biodiversity globally, and the social and economical risks that come with it, with big names such as Brewdog and Aston Villa getting involved. In an interesting twist, the campaign idea was borne from a One Minute Brief back in 2020.
Our world, just like our logo, is nothing without nature.
That’s why we’ve joined with @WWF and @Voice4Planet to show just how vital nature is in every aspect of our life.
Do your part today and add your Voice to protect it: https://t.co/TrTf9hRCVl #WorldWithoutNature pic.twitter.com/C4Dyt3KUyh
— BrewDog (@BrewDog) March 3, 2021
Next campaign please.
It was International Women’s Day on 8th March, and Burger King made a whopper of a misstep with their ‘Women belong in the kitchen’ tweet. The tweet was followed by a thread detailing how only 20% of chefs are women and how in response to this, the company is launching a scholarship programme to help female employees achieve their ‘culinary dreams’. While the intention of the initial tweet was to grab attention, people didn’t seem to get around to reading the thread and it quickly racked up negative attention, leading to apologies, explanations and ultimately, the tweet being taken down. As you will be able to see from the tweet below.
We hear you. We got our initial tweet wrong and we’re sorry. Our aim was to draw attention to the fact that only 20% of professional chefs in UK kitchens are women and to help change that by awarding culinary scholarships. We will do better next time.
— Burger King (@BurgerKingUK) March 8, 2021
Next topic please.
Not only was it International Women’s Day on 8th March, but it was also the day that Meghan and Prince Harry’s interview with Oprah aired in the UK, setting social media, news outlets and Piers Morgan alight. Oprah kicked things off with the tweet ‘Today’s the day.’ to her 43.6m followers, and since then there have been over 1.68 million online mentions surrounding the event. The Queen issued a response to the interview, although the impact that it has had on the Royal Family ‘brand’ remains to be seen. I’ve inserted my favourite meme to come out of it below.
That wraps up our briefing and another month of activity spanning PR and social media – now pass that man a clicker, get the other one to the barbers and pass me a glass (read: bottle) of prosecco ready for the 12th April!
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