“You should try harder to watch your weight, ladies!” says plastic surgeon

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We’re NOT all going on a summer holiday: More than half of British women hate their bikini body so much they’d rather stay home.

A fortnight of juice fasting ahead of jetting off on a summer holiday is a tradition of sorts for many British women who are unhappy with the state of their bodies in their current state.

And more than half (53 per cent) admit they hate the sight of themselves in a swimsuit so much that they would rather miss out on a sunshine break than strip off.

Three in five (60 per cent) British women say they refuse to be photographed in their holiday wardrobes.

Source: Daily Mail, 1 June 2014

It’s not just the prospect of wearing a bikini that terrifies women – they are ashamed by their body in all manner of situations… each of which is very clearly outlined and highlighted in this press-release-based article, just to hammer home the message. No surprises, then, to see who the message is from:

Harley Street clinic LoveLite, who specialise in fat-freezing treatment Lipoglaze, commissioned the research.

A spokesperson said: ‘What a shame that so many British women are missing out on amazing holidays because of their body anxiety.’

You’re right, that is a shame. But it’s much, much more of a shame that, rather than help diffuse physique paranoia, instead there are companies out there ramping-up that anxiety in order to boost interest in their surgical solutions.

“It’s important to have protein in your diet!” says dairy drink makers

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Wine? We think it’s full of protein: Millions of Britons wrongly think chips and alcohol are good sources of the nutrient

More than one in ten clueless Brits wrongly believe chocolate, beer and wine are good sources of protein, according to a new study.

Millions of baffled men and women are looking in the wrong places for protein as 81 per cent of the nation has no idea how much they need.

In fact, a fifth of Brits (19 per cent) aren’t even aware that it’s essential for them to consume protein daily.

Source: Daily Mail, 26 May 2014

Clearly people need to be made more aware of the importance of protein as part of a healthy diet. Luckily, there’s someone on hand to help them ditch the wine and grab a protein drink:

The study, by dairy drink Upbeat, found cereal, pasta, butter and rice were the top foods we mistakenly believe are good sources of protein.

Naturally, the makers of Upbeat have released this startling information about the nutritional ignorance of the nation purely as a public service:

Mark Neville, the founder of The Good Whey Co. who make Upbeat, said: ‘We’re on a mission to educate the nation on the importance and many benefits of protein to help Brits make healthier choices.

‘Creating National Protein Week will hopefully help people to understand how protein and Upbeat, a convenient and healthy source of protein, can help keep them going throughout the day.

‘We want to spread the word protein is not only in supporting day-to-day fitness and wellbeing but also help them feel more upbeat.’

And, presumably, if they happen to buy a few bottles of Upbeat dairy drink, so much the better, eh Mark?

“Your children know nothing about gardening!” says shopping channel with gardening section

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Chocolate bars come from the ground say children who don’t know what a spade is for… latest poll on how much British children don’t know

One in 20 British children under the age of ten believe chocolate bars grow in the ground and even more think flowers are man-made, a new survey revealed today.

A shocking poll also found one in three did not know that potatoes grew in the ground and one in four had no idea what a spade was used for.

Their parents did not perform much better, with 12 per cent unable to recognise a conker when shown a picture.

Source: Daily Mail, 26 May 2014

Children, yet again, prove themselves to be completely ignorant about the basic things in life – like nature, food, and how to effectively fill in an online survey they don’t care about and may not actually be present during the completion of.

In case you’re wondering who it is that’s calling your child an idiot this week, paragraph four makes it clear:

A survey of 2,000 parents and their children for home shopping channel QVC has revealed how little many know about the natural world.

There’s no surprises who QVC commissioned to conduct the survey – look no further than Bad PR regulars OnePoll:

In a recent survey conducted by One Poll, we asked 2,000 UK adults how gardening features in their family lives, both in their own childhoods and now.

Our research even found that, of the children asked, 5% believed chocolate came from UK soil and 20% thought flowers were man-made.

This is certainly problematic: as I’ve highlighted before, polling companies like OnePoll often have inadequate means of ensuring children are actually taking web surveys designed to gauge their opinion, and could arguable be said to actively incentivise parents to take polls on their child’s behalf… utterly invalidating the results.

So, when newspaper articles declare the youth of today to be ignorant, based on an invested party employing a web survey company with questionable research methodology, I tend not to panic (at least, not about the youth of today – though the state of the media landscape that leads to the publishing or blatant PR as pseudosociological news does raise the blood pressure somewhat).

Finally, if you’re wondering why QVC are suddenly taking an interest in the education of the nation’s children, it might be something to do with a new campaign they’ve launched:

Bosses at QVC are launching a Watch Them Grow campaign encouraging parents to spend time gardening with their children.

Of course, the new campaign has almost certainly nothing to do with the extensive gardening range on offer on the QVC website, even if they explicitly urge you to browse their garden products in the Call To Action at the bottom of their report on the ‘research’.

They’re not instructing you to buy from them – they’re merely planting the seed.

“Fast food can be expensive!” says voucher site with fast food offer

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Busy Britons spend over £100 a month on fast food

BRITONS spend £109 a month each on takeaways and ready meals, research has revealed.

Fast food and eating out now account for a third of our annual food budget. We tuck into 12 convenience meals a month on average. Chinese is most popular, being the favourite of 26 per cent of those polled.

Source: Daily Express, 26 March 2014

Takeaway UK: Average Brit is now spending £1,320 a year on fastfood buying 12 meals every month

It was once just a treat for the weekend, but a new survey has found that the average Brit now forks out £110 per month on takeaway meals every month.

The study found that an average of 12 takeaways is purchased per person per month- a staggering £1,320.

Men have the biggest taste for fast food as they get through an extraordinary 151 takeaways a year, while the figure for women is 126.

Source: Daily Mail, 4 April 2014

Fast food, despite its convenience, is no friend to our wallets – if this data is to be believed. Although that’s quite a big ‘if’, relying on the average person buying a £10 takeaway every three days.

Could there be an ulterior motive behind this pair of stories making it to the press?

Duncan Jennings, co-founder of vouchercodes.co.uk, said: ‘Takeaways are now a part of everyday life for busy consumers.

‘Britain has always been a nation of food lovers and especially as we have nearly every type of cuisine available on the go throughout Britain.

‘But, eating on the move no longer needs to be an unhealthy or expensive option.’

Indeed, if the contents of this PR story for a discount voucher website were true, it really would be an expensive option… unless there was a voucher website on hand to help bring down those costs somewhat, of course.

“Possessions are really important!” says cashback website

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Society’s status symbols have changed from ponies to pools

SYMBOLS of success now include a high-performance car, a nanny and a swimming pool in the back garden, a study revealed yesterday.

The survey showed just how much times have changed in the space of a generation.

Thirty years ago, a dishwasher, a mobile phone and a colour TV were thought of as signs of having money.

In comparison, to be judged a success now you need to travel in business or first class, own a second home and have a designer watch.

Source: Daily Express, 21 April 2014

From dishwashers to swimming pools: How status symbols have been upgraded over the past 30 years

Gone are the days of showing off a cordless phone, dishwasher and conservatory to make your friends jealous.

Because symbols of success are now considered to include high performance cars, a nanny and a swimming pool in the back garden.

A study of 2,000 Britons shows how much times have changed in the space of one generation, with items used to show off wealth in the 1980s, such as microwaves, colour TVs and mobiles now considered nothing more than ordinary.

Source: Daily Mail, 21 April 2014

While this pair of articles may ostensibly explore the relationship between status symbols past and present, the real purpose is to highlight just how important it is to have the latest must-have, to be valid in today’s society:

The survey of 2,000 Britons also found that four in 10 believe people place more importance on status symbols now than in previous generations.

Why such importance? Because this article was created by Bad PR regulars One Poll and placed into the papers by an online cashback site, whose very business model relies on people spending:

Andy Oldham, managing director of cashback website Quidco.com, said: “Things our parents grew up dreaming of owning – a dishwasher, colour TV and even a mobile phone – are now so normal that almost everyone has them.

“One thing that remains is the desire to have the best of the best and be a success.”

“People don’t sleep enough!” says hotel chain promoting their sleep technology via academia

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Nearly half of Brits sleep for less than six hours a night, study says.

If you have tried counting sheep, drinking camomile tea and listening to whale music but still find yourself lying awake at night then you’re not alone – almost half of people in the UK suffer from a lack of sleep, according to new research.

As the clocks go forward and the nation prepares to lose an hour of sleep this weekend, a study by ibis hotels found that 47 per cent of adults get less than six hours of shut-eye a night.

Source: Independent, 28 March 2014

We are clearly a nation of insomniacs, given how little we sleep, and it’s enough to concern a noted academic:

Professor Russell Foster, Head of Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology, said: “It is remarkable how as a society we undervalue the importance of sleep, with as many as one in three Britons suffering from poor sleep.

“The impact is more than just grumpiness. The lack of sleep greatly decreases our ability to process information and solve problems. It can even make us more impulsive. All this can lead to a decrease in productivity and often an increase in accidents.”

However, it’s not just the good professor who is concerned by how little sleep we Brits are getting, and how it might be affecting our productivity – in fact, this research came not from an academic institute but from the PR department of Ibis hotels:

Missing from the remnants of the press release which made it into the Independent was the quote from Ibis’ parent company, making explicit their interest in this line of ‘research’:

Commenting on the findings, Karelle Lamouche Accor Head of Marketing UK and Ireland said: “We were surprised to find out how little the average Brit sleeps. The wellbeing of our guests is our priority and as such ibis hotels developed an exclusive, innovative and revolutionary bedding concept named Sweet Bed by ibis.

Designed and built by our engineers in collaboration with researchers, doctors, sociologists around the world to create the best possible bed for hotel guests. All our bedrooms also feature blackout blinds and high quality soundproofing to ensure the optimal environment for sleep.

“Taking control of our sleep is one of the easiest ways of improving one’s life. 36% of our lives is spent asleep and we are committed to doing everything we can to ensure our guests sleep soundly.’

Ironically, of course, Karelle’s insistence that we spend 36% of our lives asleep flies in the face of her own research – which has us at 6 hours per night, or just 24% of our lives.

It’s that kind of commitment to accuracy and attention to detail which makes the Ibis experience precisely what it is…

“Buying junk food for kids is expensive!” says voucher website with deals on takeaways

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A third of children eat junk food every day – but many parents lie about it for fear of being judged

Parents spend on average £26 a month feeding their children fast food, pizza and burgers – and most lie to their friends for fear of being judged.

A survey found more than a third of children under 10 are eating junk food every day.

This is despite parents saying they try to monitor their calorie intake and worrying their children’s consumption of crisps and chocolate is ‘out of control’.

Source: Daily Mail, 27 May 2014

Keeping up with the requirements of the obese generation is no easy task, with one in three children under the age of 10 apparently eating ‘junk food’ every day – totalling around £26 per child, per month. That’s a scary-sounding statistic, especially when you’re not forced to define precisely what counts as ‘junk food’. That said, we are offered a list of the most common junk foods for children:

Takeaway pizza was the junk food children were most likely to eat. This was followed by chocolate, which 26 per cent of parents said their children ate regularly, while 17 per cent of parents said their children consumed food from fast food chains most often.

The apparent disparity between junk food being consumed ‘daily’ while the most common foods are consumed only ‘regularly’ isn’t one that’s explored in any real detail, nor is it clarified where parents are finding daily takeaway pizza for an average of 85p per day. It’s as if the stats aren’t the real purpose of the story… Speaking of which, if you think this article appears in the news solely in order to raise awareness of the crisis of children’s diets, think again:

A fifth of parents admitted they regularly lie to others about how much pizza, chocolate and crisps their children are eating to avoid being judged by their peers or seen as ‘cheap’.

The survey, by discount website www.VoucherCodesPro.co.uk, analysed the shopping habits of 1,426 parents who had at least one child aged 10 or under. This revealed that the average spend per child was £26 every month.

George Charles, of VoucherCodesPro, said: ‘Parents may be lying about how much junk food they feed their kids because they’re worried about looking ‘cheap’ but that couldn’t be further from the truth.’

So, not only is it terrible that kids eat so much junk, but it’s also expensive, despite how ‘cheap’ it might seem. Fortunately, of course, there are great deals and savings to be had by visiting VoucherCodesPro, the discount website who paid for this story to appear as news. Let’s hope they didn’t spend too much on it.

“People keep valuables in unsecured garages!” says home insurer

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End of road for the garage? Half of Britain’s motorists now use theirs to store household clutter with average holding £1,650 of ‘stuff’

It could be the end of the garage as we know it. Half of Britain’s motorists no longer use theirs to house the car, a survey has found.

Sports gear, gardening equipment and household clutter now fill many garages, with some families even converting the building into living space.

A study by RAC Home Insurance concludes that nearly half – 4.6million – of Britain’s 10.6million garages are no longer being used for their original purpose.

Source: Daily Mail, 29 May 2014

Alas, the death of the humble garage – the small, gated house for cars, lest your vehicle be seen by the outside world. Instead, the age of acquisition has our cars left homeless and bereft, ousted instead for all manner of tat… and a fair amount of non-tat, too:

And among the half-empty paint pots and rusty gardening tools are some valuable possessions, with the average garage holding £1,650-worth of ‘stuff’. That equates to £7.6billion across Britain

Almost eight billion pounds of stuff left lying around in garages? Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me, and also to the RAC’s Home Insurance team:

The RAC report said: ‘The death of the garage as a place to keep the car is now confirmed.
It suggests we have become a nation of hoarders with our garages capturing the overspill from our homes which are not built with enough storage space available for today’s consumers.’

It would be easy to dismiss this story as either untrue or inconsequential, given that cars these days are much less susceptible to the hazards of the weather, and have absolutely zero chance of actually caring if they’re kept on the street or in a tiny brick car-house. However, there’s real drama in the ‘death of the garage’, as RAC spokesman Simon Williams explains:

‘It’s frightening to think that nearly five million garages are not used for the purpose they were made.

‘The findings of our research appear to indicate that there is an issue with the design of houses as people do not have enough space to keep all their possessions in the house itself and many garages are so small that anyone in the car has to perform a contortionist act to get out.’

It’s fair to say the RAC have a much lower threshold for fear than the rest of the population. Still, Simon has some sage and entirely-impartial advice to justify why RAC Home Insurance paid good money for this particular piece of PR:

‘For all those who use their garage for extra storage, security is an important issue to consider as they are relatively easy targets for thieves looking for high value items such as bikes and tools.

‘That’s why it is essential to have the right insurance in case the worst should happen.’

So, garage-owners of the UK: take out RAC Home Insurance today, and perhaps finally Simon Williams will be able to set his fears to bed and sleep more easily in his converted-garage-bedroom.

“You should sell your nan’s jewellery!” says auction house

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Remember that heirloom your dear old nan left you right before she passed away? The one that’s been in your family for generations? The one that Kate Winslet dropped into the sea after Leonardo Di Caprio let go of the raft that one time in a film? Well, the Daily Mail wants to have a word with you about it:

Ransack the attic! Britons have £50 MILLION in unwanted jewellery gathering dust in their homes

A glittering stash of £50 million worth of unwanted jewellery is gathering dust in Britain’s homes, according to new research.

Changing tastes in jewellery mean millions of pounds worth of earrings, necklaces, bracelets and other pricey pieces are simply forgotten, hidden on top of wardrobes or in bedside drawers.

Auction house Bonhams used data from the past five years of sales to create a jewellery hot-spot map, showing some of its most lucrative sales.

Source: Daily Mail, 28 May 2014

While a heat map of where the most lucrative jewellery sales in the UK is useful for pointing out where the most expensive single items of jewellery were sold, it is of course of little use in figuring out quite what your great Aunt Shelley’s ugly brooch might fetch at auction.

Speaking of auctions, it’s worth highlighting the source of this particular piece of published PR:

Jean Ghika, head of jewellery in the UK and Europe at Bonhams, said: ‘We estimate there is at least £50 million worth of unwanted jewellery that owners have forgotten or never worn just waiting for a new home. We’re urging everyone to have a look in their drawers and jewellery boxes, dusting off any items they haven’t worn for several years or may have been bequeathed and not know much about.

‘Over the years we’ve had some astonishing finds, often brought to us in carrier bags or wrapped in tea towels.

Which just go to show that something you long ago decided was ugly, outdated and worthless can prove to have some use – for example, an auction house might publish a story in it.

“Paper maps are dead!” says communications group; “No they’re not!” says map-makers

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End of road for paper maps after 300 years and…10 more things killed by technology

PAPER maps are to be consigned to the dustbin after 300 years, just the latest in a long line of things we once took for granted now made redundant by the march of technology.

Ordnance Survey sales have shrunk by a third from their all-time annual high of around three million a decade ago as hikers and other users rely on sat-navs instead.

Now only maps of popular walking areas, such as the Lake District, will still be available in bookshops.

Other areas will have to be ordered online and downloaded to a computer.

Source: Daily Express, 31 March 2014

The humble map, it seems, has had its day – and online Business communications provider Daisy Group (who paid for this story) doesn’t mourn their passing:

Spokeswoman Kate O’Brien said yesterday: “Technology dominates modern life, so it is no surprise there are a number of acts we no longer do.

“Developments in computing, smartphones, TVs and other gadgets make communicating easier and faster than ever.

“It is quicker to buy something online rather than visit the shops, or talk online instead of picking up the landline.

“Life is getting easier and faster.

“A huge range of jobs and activities are being overtaken by technology.”

That said, try telling that to map-makers Ordnance Survey, who clearly took issue with the negativity of this pro-online press release, causing the Daily Express to issue a correction:

I am writing to correct a point in your news story ‘End of road for paper maps after 300’ where you state “Now only maps of popular walking areas, such as the Lake District, will still be available in bookshops,” This is wholly inaccurate. Ordnance Survey is committed to maintaining a national series of paper maps for both OS Explorer and OS Landranger Maps. We will continue to print and supply paper maps, covering the whole of Great Britain, to wholesalers, retailers and customers. We want to ensure that our paper products are the number one tool for anyone discovering the outdoors. Paper maps are an important and iconic part of the Ordnance Survey brand and we strongly feel that they remain an essential part of the outdoors market, working alongside digital products and apps.

I guess it was just a breakdown in communication online from the online communication providers Daisy Group.