Agency puffs as Eurostar burns

This from PR Week...

MD of conversation shop We Are Social, Robin Grant, has declared the Eurostar crisis as 'good news' for his agency in an interview with PRWeek.

Happy days!

Good to see that promoting the agency comes before safeguarding the reputation of the client.

No doubt this fabulous piece of PR puffery will do much to avert the ire of furious passengers, vindictive media and the governments of both Britain and France?

Eye salutes 'conversion shop' We are Social Jerks.

UPDATE: This from Robin Grant...

Bearing in mind the previous content of the PR Week story, I totally understand the content of your latest blog post.

However, as you'll note, their story has now been edited to reflect the words I actually used:

'From our perspective the way we have managed the social media is good news for us and our relationship with Eurostar.'

Which as I hope you can appreciate, has a different meaning to the way they originally reported it.

UPDATE: Richard Baker suggests how Eurostar should have 'digitally engaged'.

You should be integrating social media into your business to engage with your internal, as well as your external, customers.

Sound advice and no hint of PR Week puffery!

Aslef craps on Eurostar

Earth to Aslef, come in Aslef...

This surreal bollocks just issued by the brothers...

Further strike action will take place on Eurostar on 26 – 27 December.

We hope that we can resolve this dispute with Eurostar so that they can provide full cover to deal with further disruption caused by technical failures.

Is there a Darwin Award for Unions?

Brown apologises - Official

So Richard has gone where Gordon dare not.

About time too.

According to the Southport Visiter:

The high-speed rail company's chief executive Richard Brown said he was "very, very sorry" about what had happened.

Giggling Richard has even set his slice of humble pie to music.



Eye is waiting for something similar from infrastructure operator Eurobungle, who have much to answer for.

UPDATE: This from Steve Strong...

Don't for God's sake suggest it's the wrong kind of snow.

Although according to the pretty graphics on the Grauniad website that's exactly what it is.

UPDATE: This from PR Monkey...

Eurostar are clearly missing Simon Montague.

I bet he wouldn't have stuck his half dressed CEO in a broom cupboard and released the footage to YouTube!



If Richard Brown still has a job by the end of Christmas he needs to recruit a new PR team.

UPDATE: This from our man at 222 Marylebone Road...

In a broom cupboard?

Looks more like a wrecker having been persuaded into confessing to his anti-soviet misdemeanours at a 1930s Moscow show trial before being taken out and liquidated.

And has any body seen the so-called Brown on TV again?

UPDATE: This from Charles Yerkes...

This is like the bad old days, immediately after privatisation, when the UK rail industry couldn't talk with one voice.

This is the headline from a Eurotunnel press release:

Eurotunnel rescues Eurostar

Bloody cheek!

Perhaps someone should ask Eurobungle who kept shoving trains into the Chunnell after the first couple failed.

UPDATE: Over to Longrider for words of wisdom...

Hindsight always illustrates missed opportunities.

More here.

UPDATE: Wolmar offers his reflections on the PR disaster over at The Times:

The tone adopted by Richard Brown, the head of Eurostar, said it all. He was vaguely apologetic, but he did not get the enormity of the cock-up. Like a football manager whose team had just lost 7-0 he still thought they had played well.

Meanwhile the Daily Mail has its sights on Eurostar Ops Director Nicolas Petrovic.

Petrovic was due to be promoted to the role of Chief Executive in the New Year when Richard Brown is supposed to become Executive Chairman.

Alas, with both the French and British governments looking for someone to blame the planned succession may now be in disaray.

The sound of industry CVs being burnished is almost deafening!