PR Fresh Hits: March 10, 2021

Huffington Post Canada + Huffington Post Quebecs stops publishing

It’s really terrible that in the short time we’ve been writing this column, we’re here reporting on another major media outlet winding down in Canada.

Earlier this week, Huffington Post Canada and Huffington Post Quebec (owned by VICE Media) laid off their 23 staff and decided to stop publishing on their properties. Their existing content will stay online as an archive but nothing new will be published as of March 9.

Anytime local reporting ceases, it has a direct impact on local communities and cities. For professional communicators, this also impacts our work and strategies -- earned stories are that much more difficult to secure and valuable at the same time.

Burger King UK’s #IWD campaign puts PR team in crisis mode

On International Women’s Day, Burger King took a swing on a risky campaign, and missed. Burger King’s UK team put out a (now deleted) tweet saying that: Women belong in the kitchen.

Cheekily, the subsequent tweets in the thread went on to share that women are underrepresented in kitchens and that they were putting out a scholarship for women pursuing culinary careers. No where could you find information on the scholarship, or how to apply but after some serious Googling, we found it was for two women at $25K each.

This didn’t resonate well. While a different execution had the full narrative in a full-page newspaper ad, the Internet did its thing and Burger King removed the tweet and issued an apology.

We’re always for brands taking risks, but felt the international design of the tweet was in poor taste as the full statement could have fit within Twitter’s word limitations. You can’t use a scholarship as your ‘get out of PR jail’ card -- that’s charity washing.

A good lesson to brands: please consult your PR teams before making the Internet angry.

PS: this Tweeter had a great alternative campaign BK could have ran with.

The Toronto Raptors to have all-female game broadcast team

To celebrate Women’s History Month and the contributions women have made to sports, Toronto Raptors announced an all-female regular-season game broadcast for its March 24th game against the Denver Nuggets. This will be the first all-female NBA broadcast in Canadian broadcast history.

The all-star broadcast team will feature Meghan McPeak, Kia Nurse of the Canadian national team and WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury, TSN host and reporter Kayla Grey, TSN’s Kate Beirness, and Raptors 905 analyst Amy Audibert.

Announced on International Women’s Day, this historic milestone aims to be a step towards creating more opportunities for women in pro sports, an industry that has been typically male-dominated.

Written by Crystal Kwon, principal at front+centre - a PR firm for challenger brands. If you want your work featured, email hi@frontandcentre.co