PR’s Best and Worst of 2006

BusinessWeek.com has the best and worst PR of 2006, which includes Wal-Mart, Borat!, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson and Ok Go. Some of the more amusing highlights are the following:

“Wal-Marting into Controversy

Worst

Wal-Mart is the company anticorporate activists love to hate, so every PR step the giant retailer takes must be carefully thought out. Wal-Mart faltered, however, with a folksy blog called Wal-Marting Across America. The couple writing the pro-Wal-Mart blog, Jim and Laura, were real people all right—countering critics’ early suspicions that they were fakes. But their tour was receiving financial support from a group that was funded primarily by Wal-Mart. The retailer’s PR agency, Edelman, took responsibility for the misstep. CEO Richard Edelman issued a personal mea culpa, explaining that the blog was his firm’s idea.”

“Taco’s Bell-y Ache

Worst

“Yum” turned to “yikes” for Yum Brands’ Taco Bell unit in early December when the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention reported that dozens of people who had eaten at Taco Bell restaurants in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware in November and December had been sickened by E. coli bacteria. Yum shut several Taco Bell stores while the source of the contamination was investigated. As of mid-December, the offending ingredient—possibly lettuce—hadn’t been found. Taco Bell was forced into the unenviable position of taking out full-page newspaper ads to assure customers that its food is safe to eat.”

“The PR Learnings of Borat!

Best

The humor may be sophomoric and offensive, but for sheer marketing prowess, nothing in 2006 topped the launch of the movie Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, starring Sacha Baron Cohen. Interviews with Cohen in the guise of Borat were everywhere and even the international objections to the movie—including protests and a ban in the real nation of Kazakhstan and lawsuits from individuals who claim they were duped into appearing in the movie—have only fueled Borat’s success. The movie has grossed more than $100 million in the U.S. so far.”

“Branson’s Big Pledge

Best

Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, who has long had an interest in green innovation, made a splash in September when he kicked off Bill Clinton’s Global Initiative in New York, pledging to invest all future profits from Virgin’s four airlines and two train companies—an estimated $3 billion over the next decade—in renewable energy initiatives to combat global warming. It’s a publicity coup that could end up earning him a pretty penny if the alternative energy businesses take off.”

This has sure been and interesting and fun year for all of us in the PR game. I can’t wait to see what challenges and new initiatives await all of us in 2007.