When Harrods announced its Christmas department was open for business, the season of goodwill Christmas didn’t just come early for its customers, the shop itself received a massive Christmas present in the form of media coverage. Whoever does Harrods’ PR must have written a very persuasive letter to Santa Claus (presumably c/o St Tropez rather than Lapland).
I don’t doubt there are some people who want to buy Christmas fairies in August but it was still a brilliant publicity stunt to launch the department in the middle of a heatwave. They couldn’t have got much more media coverage if Harrods’ owner Mr Al-Fayed had sat naked on top of a Norwegian fir! It’s a lot better than a press release saying ‘There are less than 150 shopping days to Christmas.’
The best publicity stunts work because they are grounded in reality but are at the same time bizarre. In this case, we are already familiar with shops beginning Christmas sales in September. It seems early but unremarkable. Yet the idea that people might buy Christmas decorations in the summer was one step beyond and it couldn’t be ignored.
The other factor which made this so clever is timing. August is traditionally the media’s ‘silly season’ when there is less news than usual and they are crying out for stories. No matter if no-one goes into Harrods for Christmas decs as a result of the publicity- they'll remember the name of the store.
You don’t have to write to Santa Claus to get good media coverage. When I was running PR for The Mayflower Theatre, my best publicity stunt was the hunt for the perfect bum. Again it started from a genuine story- we had to test all the seats to decide which needed to be refurbished. Instead of simply getting someone to do the job, I decided to announce that we were looking for a seat tester. The qualification of course was the sensitivity of their bottom.
Out went the press release (in the summer) that we would be auditioning bottoms. Widespread coverage resulted, including a photo (of my bottom) on the front page of your favourite evening newspaper and a TV news story of me opening the applications (I made sure applicants included photos) as well as the audition itself. The headline wrote itself- Bum Job!- and everyone knew that The Mayflower cared about customer comfort.
See my Top Ten Tips on Writing Press Releases
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