The Rise Of Sarcastic PR

This morning Greggs – my favourite fine dining choice – was hit by an IT issue which meant stores had to shut because payments couldn’t be taken.

Doubtless this cost it a few quid, but it was also a chance for the Greggs Twitter team to earn its living.

They are good at this stuff, earlier turning a spat with Piers Morgan about vegan sausage rolls into loads of free publicity.

They did a good Claudia Winkleman in Greggs spoof too.

Ryanair has a great PR tweet team, openly trolling customers and celebrities alike, in the spirit of chief executive Michael O’Leary.

There’s a risk for Ryanair here, since there must be a chance one of its planes crash, at which point Twitter gags don’t look so funny.

That risk is less at Paddy Power, which has perhaps the best mischief department in the game.

Sometimes this stuff goes horribly wrong, notably when Dulux decided to troll Tottenham Hotspur, mocking its empty trophy cabinet as too dusty to paint, days after it became the official sponsor of….Tottenham Hotspur.

I once thought that the rise of sarcastic flaks would provide a later-life home for sarcastic hacks. In truth, they hardly seem to need us.

And maybe our own sarcasm isn’t as funny as we think.

A flak writes in: “Hacks are perma-sarcastic with PRs. So many pointless Tweets: Dear Useless PRs, etc etc. But can you imagine a PR tweeting, ‘Dear journos – before writing your latest hatchet job, at least try to meet the company you’re slagging off, and perhaps spell the CEO’s name correctly – she’s a stickler for that. And know the difference between capex and working capital, there’s a good fellow’. Journos dish it out. Few can take it. Hacks are world class grudge bearers.”

There’s not a great deal to argue with there. We’re awful.

On the upside – also easily amused.