From a shareholder perspective, this makes perfect sense. Musk leaving would almost certainly cause a crash in the car maker’s shares. But it is obscene and not a good look for a company already hammered by Musk’s dire public image. Can he deliver or is it all bluster? Time will tell. #pr

As a #copywriter, this made my skin crawl.

This story is exactly why local journalism is still so important. Well done to the team at the @sheffieldtribune.bsky.social.

The #AI industry’s snowballing image problem is a PR crisis in motion -> www.schofieldcomms.com/post/the-ai-...

Following on from my comments yesterday about AI's faltering public image, the industry's senior leaders seem determined to start the snowball that may cause an avalanche. A totally avoidable "PR crisis" started by an ill thought out comment. They should be media training to avoid these issues.

The lottery (US or UK) is a #PR generating machine. Make it nigh on impossible to win, see jackpots skyrocket, the press run loads of stories boosting ticket sales, pushing up the prize further, and so on and so forth until someone finally wins and resets the machine. Ad infinitum.

Coca-Cola's #AI Christmas Advert (the 2nd year they used an AI generated ad) is an interesting case of self-inflicated reputational damage. Let's be honest, the advert is awful, but expect more in future unless it damages sales. But how likely is that?

The Tech / AI industry is having a bit of an image problem following a few years of hype. Sentiment seems to be shifting. And unfortunately industry leaders are not helping themselves with statements like this from Jensen Huang, the boss of Nvidia:

Via @thestar.co.uk www.thestar.co.uk/community/sh...

Great news for the Leeds high street and a nice interview with the head of Patek Philippe and others by @insidermedia.com - www.insidermedia.com/news/yorkshi... #Yorkshire #Luxury #Watches

Former Observer big-hitters inc @carolecadwalla.bsky.social launch new title The Nerve with redundancy payouts After Observer sale: "We decided to launch a title that the journalists themselves would own, that would be truly independent" pressgazette.co.uk/news/former-...

"Scandal Decoded" is worth a subscribe if you're on Substack. It's a new crisis management PR blog from @ninasawetz.com that offers an interesting take on "how reputations are made, broken and, sometimes, salvaged". scandaldecoded.substack.com #PR #CrisisComms #PublicRelations

My jaw dropped when I read this: "Vehicle tax on a new £85,000 BMW X5 would amount to £3,200 in the UK, but the sale would incur taxes of £66,600 in France." www.theguardian.com/money/2025/s...

“Surprise rise in inflation to highest since December 2023” - via @news.sky.com - does this actually feel like to surprise to anyone?

11am on a Tuesday clearly the current “optimised” time to send out #marketing emails. Just received 8 at the same time. Suggestion: try “odd” timings - e.g. 11:07, 11:12, 11:27, etc. Less likely to get lost in a deluge of other distributions on the hour.

Tapping my computer keyboard with renewed vigour this morning after falling down a Danny Carey sized drumming rabbit hole on YouTube last night. I can't play the drums like Danny (or at all), but I can thrash a keyboard with the best of them. *This did not sound cooler in my head*

Great issue of unLTD magazine this month. Essential reading for the Sheffield business community. #Sheffield

“A study found that people in Sheffield on average spent just four minutes and 36 seconds in natural spaces each day.” That struck me as exceptionally low. Story via @theguardian.com -> www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Nine days ago I was a tourist in Paris, eating crepes, climbing the Eiffel, and visiting Napoleon at Les Invalides. I’ve been to #france dozens of times over the last 20 years, mostly climbing in Fontainebleau forest, so it was nice to do something different.

Thank you BBC Scotland News for featuring climbing therapy sessions in Scotland & Ukraine for refugee and war-affected children on three radio and two TV news shows today. Thanks also: Urban Uprising, Mountain Seed Foundation, AUGB Edinburgh, IWMF, The Climbing Hangar.

In PR, due diligence at the start of any campaign can be the difference between a great story and a reputational mess. From verifying bold claims to quietly pulling the plug on shaky pitches, investigation is the unseen skill that protects clients before the questions start. More below...

This week’s The Guardian Weekly: “How do we talk about the climate crisis so an autocrat will listen?”

It's always nice when a reporter calls you back after an interview with your client just to say thanks for setting it up. Never fails to put a smile on my face. Lovely team over at BBC Radio Sheffield.

PR dream or disaster for Jet2? Should they lean into the meme, ignore it, or publicly distance themselves? Providing it's done well, I say lean into it. www.theguardian.com/media/2025/j...

This week’s Guardian Weekly: “How Trump’s tariffs created a storm of uncertainty”

Who is running the chess PR account these days? Because they have been killing it since Queen's Gambit (when I jumped on the bandwagon with everyone else). The popularity has gone through the roof and right at the centre is @chess.com. #PR #Chess

This will be an interesting campaign. WPP-owned agencies, including @ogilvy.com, work with several of the banks behind the campaign. www.theguardian.com/business/202... #advertising #investing

I do love a good survey. And when it's about PR I can't resist. 43% of businesses do zero PR (but only 9% of large businesses). 74% are happy with their PR strategies. 37% are using AI in their PR efforts. More from @yougov.co.uk in the link. #PR #PublicRelations #Communications

Great piece from BBC Yorkshire's Tom MacDougall highlighting the amazing stories at one of our client’s care homes. The staff and residents never cease to amaze. #Yorkshire #SocialCare #CareHomes

“Merging”, “streamlining” - 50 people will lose their jobs and 104 more “have been placed at risk”. pressgazette.co.uk/news/reach-t... @pressgazette.co.uk

This week’s Guardian Weekly: “Why things can only get better for Britain’s Labour government” - agree?

Super editorial from Katy over at Creative Boom.

Good news? Bad news? Indifferent news?

Interesting article from @sbearne.bsky.social on the impact of AI on professional copywriters. #ai #copywriting www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Cover story on this week’s The Guardian Weekly: Is this the death of international law?

What a glorious weekend of sunshine! ☀️ Spotted this Small Tortoiseshell enjoying the lavender in my garden yesterday and thought it apt to share here (Bluesky logo). Hope everyone had the chance to relax and unwind. #butterflies #gardening #UKwildlife

Interesting use of specifically trained GenAI agents by the BBC. On Style Assist, I do wonder if it's actually going to expedite the process of publishing local democracy stories considering they will still need reviewing by a senior BBC journalist. #AI www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/...

From the telephone to the internet, every major tech shift faced scepticism. Is #AI facing the same static? I've written a blog on what history teaches us about embracing change, and why creativity remains firmly human-led. Read more: www.schofieldcomms.com/post/a-freel...

“There’s still time to help someone hold on to who they are.” An effective, poignant piece of direct mail I received from Sheffield Hospitals Charity last week. A great example of powerful storytelling in just 50 words. #directmail #charity #copywriting

Melancholy from European Movement UK this AM: In the Summer of 2016, David Cameron was Prime Minister. Barack Obama President of the USA. We were years away from Covid-19. TikTok hadn’t yet been invented. The average weekly food shop in the UK was £56.80. The UK economy was growing by 2% each year.

Nvidia's journey from near bankruptcy to AI lynchpin is an amazing success story. This is a great round-up from an intern, Nina Moothedath, at @yahoofinance.com - uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/nvidia-...

The global podcast market is booming. In 2023 it was valued at $23.7bn. It’s projected to grow to $91.34bn by 2032, at a CAGR of 16.8%. In the UK alone it reaches an audience of more than 21 million listeners/viewers. If PRs aren’t pitching podcasts, they’re missing a massive segment.

That’s not an email I ever expected to receive from @microsoft.com : “The price for Microsoft 365 Business Standard will decrease soon” - but it’s a welcome one!

I was reviewing some Autotrader Insight stats on EVs (client work) when I came across a press release on Noel Gallagher's 1997 Bentley Turbo R. The car's gone but don't look back in anger and certainly don't go crying your heart out. I definitely maybe enjoyed the Oasis lyric strewn copy a bit much.

I wrote about PR's role in this era of AI search.

Google's impending demise amid the rise of AI tools seems massively overblown. Google processes 13.7 billion searches daily. ChatGPT roughly 37.5 million "search-like" prompts daily. Google surpasses ChatGPT's entire daily volume of search-like prompts in less than 4 minutes. #SEO

A lesson in how not to write an opener for your article/press release. This is simply boring. Grab the readers attention with both hands from the outset. Don’t put them to sleep with the first sentence.

Shockingly bad PR practices behind this faked @telegraphnews.bsky.social article. A charlatan set up a fake interview to promote their client's services - a seemingly reputable wealth management firm - ultimately damaging the firm's reputation, undermining the PR profession, and fuelling mistrust.

Talk about your public spats. How can either of them think shouting at each other on their respectively owned social media channels is “good for business”? What happened to dignity, restraint, control? With my PR hat on, surely that would better serve both their interests.

I’ve discovered my new favourite tea dunker. And it’s French! Incroyable!