L'Eau de Chris - one campaign we won't forget

This week, a spoof story that sounded too ludicrous to be true - and it turned out that it wasn't it was in fact a carefully planned and ingeniously considered PR stunt that couldn't have been more targeted at the right people, with the right message, all perfectly executed. Jack Walton, a second year PR student at the School of Media, Birmingham City University, tells us why he won't be forgetting this campaign for a long time...

Source: The Sun

Today I want to talk about a PR campaign that has only happened this week; it was short and sweet and took place within a 24-hour period. However, the effect it had and the impact it has left is an example of a truly well planned PR campaign. The well thought out strategy came from men’s clothing brand Topman, working with Chris Hughes from this year’s series of Love Island and supported by the charity CALM, which is dedicated to preventing male suicide and mental health issues.

The story started on Monday morning (9th October) and the truth full revealed the following day; however, the plans for the campaign will undoubtedly run much longer, as will sales and fundraising. You’d think only giving the story 24 hours to happen would be too short - a more prolonged build up needed perhaps? Not in this case. 

It all started with multiple media articles saying that Chris Hughes was releasing a range of bottled water infused with his very own tears; the name of the product being 'L’eau De Chris'. When you say the name out loud it sounds very similar to the word ludicrous… more on that later!

I'm launching my first ever product in partnership with @Topman

#LEauDeChris pic.twitter.com/LTnKVQtXzI

— Chris Hughes (@chrishughes_22) October 9, 2017

I, along with many others, was confused when I first saw this, as a Topman customer myself. The story said that the water would be available to buy from Topman for £2. An accompanying video was released on Twitter and Instagram by Chris, showing him in underwear and posing with the water bottle, along with captions to say how happy he was to release the product and that more information would be available through Facebook Live on the Topman page at 08:15am the following morning. 

This quickly became a huge talking point on social media and many slated Chris, or poked fun at him, with the consensus being that it must be some sort of joke. 

Little did we know what was in store... 

Farewell Bears of Brum

Post by Rachel Hickey, second year PR student at Birmingham City University School of Media

The Big Sleuth is a project that most people in Birmingham will probably be quite familiar with by now. But for those who don’t know, ‘The Big Sleuth’ is a project run by Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity and Wild in Art which kicked off on Monday 10^th July when 100 bears were scattered across Birmingham to be tracked down by eager explorers.

The bears created a free, public-art trail as each was specially designed to tell a different story. All kinds of groups within the Birmingham community came together to express their individual stories by creating these magnificent works of art that have been on display around Birmingham.

In a bid to raise over £500,000 as the former project ‘The Big Hoot’ did, all of the wonderful bears that have been dotted around Birmingham will be auctioned off on Thursday 12^th October. The money raised will be put towards vital funds for Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity, where it will be life changing for patients and their families.

To allow everyone to admire the bears one last time and say a sad goodbye a Farewell Weekend event is happening this weekend, over Friday 6^th, Saturday 7^th and Sunday 8^th of October in Eastside City Park. Having been one of the lucky few to attend the opening of the event, I can safely say you will be blown away by the sight of all these marvellous, inspiring and even some quite literally dazzling bears!