We’re nearing the end of the year, and this is another time for reflection on what has worked well and what could have gone better.
I can’t comment on the Gregg Wallace story as I know some of the people involved, behind the scenes. Suffice to say, as far as I know, Wallace didn’t seek or take expert PR advice when he made his ill-advised Instagram rant on Sunday 1 December.
In a different vein, words cannot express how confused I am when I’m shown, by my 22 year old, memes from brain rot which I guess is an account on Instagram or somesuch. They make absolutely no sense, play out at 100mph and apparently that’s the point. At times, it feels like the gulf between the generations is huge.
In other news
John Lewis is back on song with its Christmas advert, after a few years where, for me, it didn’t sufficiently hit the schmaltz or Christmassy buttons.
Regular readers of my blog from back in the day (I know there are one or two of you) will know that I once considered changing my social media bio to ‘John Lewis target audience’. I also absolutely love a good Christmas ad. That is, one that makes you think, that maybe makes you cry a bit with music that you love and which, of course, makes you want to be nice to your family. This year’s John Lewis ad does all those things for me.
The Warm Welcome Campaign, for which I do comms with my fantastic colleague Myra Johnson, is planning Warm Welcome Week from 20 January, typically dubbed Blue Monday and the most depressing day of the year as daylight is in short supply, bills and credit card repayments loom, and New Year’s resolutions are resolutely broken. Apparently Blue Monday is a PR invention of the travel industry, to sell hope and summer holidays.
Warm Welcome Week will instead create a surge of positivity, at a bleak time of year. We’re asking people to wear bright colours, make warming foods, get crafty if they’re that way inclined and generally celebrate community and the sense that good things happen when people come together, particularly to tackle the cost-of-living crisis and an epidemic of loneliness.
Keep an eye on Warm Welcome’s social media on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook and Bluesky for more inspiration.
I could write a whole blog post about the pros and cons of continuing to post on X or Twitter as it used to be known. An email forum I’m in has been very exercised on the matter, with some cogent arguments for and against. Personally, I’m in the ‘lead [to other networks] and they will follow’ brigade, but I appreciate it’s an upheaval and there is still an audience on X, unfortunately.
I’m ending the year feeling, at times, just so jaded by the world. It may be menopausal, or it may be a reflection of global news events, or a bit of both. I’m not surprised by anything any more: a second Trump presidency, another appalling abuse scandal, another celebrity death involving poor mental health and drugs, another round of accusations of inappropriate behaviour.
I’m also quite cross at the people who aren’t helping others but who demonise others or even worse; and I’m cross that I have had to change some habits of a working life, including avoiding the Today programme because I simply cannot bear to hear what Trump has been up to now, or about the war in Ukraine, or in Gaza, or the latest terrible climate emergency…
I am enjoying one round of news on, for example, Radio 3, before silence in the morning and time to read a few pages of book before starting my day.
All the more reason to focus on those nearest and dearest to us, and on the things we can control. Plus, all the free stuff like the air we breathe (where it isn’t polluted, naturally), the sea (ditto) and the use of our arms and legs while we still have them.
I don’t always feel negative. On a cold, beautifully frosty and sunny November morning I felt quite blessed with the things that I have in life or, today, in the calm between storms, after a 20-minute run. My mood is certainly up and down.
In January this year I wrote: “It’s always a reflective time, the turn of an old year into a new one and I find myself wondering what life will be like in December 2024, when I unpack the Christmas decorations again. Who will I have worked with? Where will I and my girls be in our lives?”
So what is life like in December 2024? I’ve spent most of the year working with Good Faith Partnership and the Warm Welcome Campaign with the loveliest bunch of people. One daughter is back at home for the foreseeable future, the other is in her second year of a law degree and away in term time. Life feels ok one minute, difficult and testing the next. Maybe it was ever thus.
I hope you’re navigating the ups and downs of life, and I look forward to being in touch in 2025.
Happy Christmas.
Lucy Rouse PR Blog 