One of the largest annual consumer and PR bandwagon’s that rolls around every year Valentine’s Day, also called Saint Valentine’s Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine. It is recognised globally as a significant cultural, religious, and commercial celebration of romance and romantic love, although it is not a public holiday in any country.
EDITORIAL USE ONLY A couple enjoy an intimate candlelit dinner at Greggs, who are hosting romantic Valentine’s Day dinners in selected shops for the first time. PRESS ASSOCIATION. Photo. Issue date: Monday January 29, 2018. Tickets are £15 for a four-course set menu and go on sale via restaurant booking website OpenTable from February 7th. Photo credit should read: David Parry/PA Wire
2018 was remarkable for the sheer number of major brands that faced reputational crises and faltered. To mention just a few: Facebook (data breaches); H&M (advert causes offence); Oxfam (sex scandal in Haiti); TSB (IT failure); Gatwick Airport (drones); Pret A Manger (fatal allergy), Ryanair (passenger footage of alleged racist incident). In every case, crisis media training would have prevented some of the self-inflicted damage caused by unprepared and out-of-touch spokespeople or slow and ineffective press offices and communications teams.
Drones have been getting bad press recently. The disruptions caused by sightings of them around Gatwick Airport saw the Ministry of Defence deploy military counter measures to combat illegal drone usage, this was believed to be an Israeli-developed Drone Dome system, which can jam communications between the drone and its operator, as well as the airport investing £5 million in other secretive technology to prevent future attacks. More than 140,000 passengers were affected by about 1,000 cancellations and delays during the 36 hours of chaos* (Source cited from the BBC) The rate of Drone to Aircraft near misses in the UK has tripled since 2015. The UK Airprox Board (UKAB), which monitors all near misses involving commercial aircraft, said there were 92 incidents between aircraft and drones in 2017. That was more than three times the number in 2015 of 29. In 2016, there were 71 and the data is clearly tracking the growth in drone use (source cited from www.theguardian.com). Other stories in 2018 saw a rise in drones being used to drop contraband into prisons.
EDITORIAL USE ONLY Denise Lewis demonstrates the latest drone technology developed by Imperial College London, at the launch of London Technology Week at The Shard in London.
