Sachin Tendulkar’s face ends up on a coin thanks to some golden PR

Great PR
 

All that glitters is Sachin Tendulkar!
 

Okay, I had hoped for a cricket-free Great PR this week, but it was not to be. Sachin Tendulkar launched one lakh 24 carat gold coins, with his face and signature, for Valuemart Gold and Jewels on Akshaya Tritiya, earlier this week. Take a look at the video here.

Usually such coins would adorn pictures of Goddess Lakshmi or Lord Ganesha.

A nice PR stunt for an unheard of jewellery company riding on the star cricketer and the gold buying lust that hits Indians every Akshaya Tritiya.

Tendulkar chatted a bit obviously at the launch about the “many golden moments on the field” and took a light dig at the West Indian cricket team’s equal love for gold chains.

The gold coin will set you back Rs. 34,000/-, and it would seem that it’s finally official, Tendulkar is God.

Angelina Jolie creates unprecedented buzz around breast cancer
 

Angelina Jolie’s, decision to undergo a double mastectomy at the age of 37, has created international coverage for breast cancer awareness.

Have to applaud Jolie for her courage in making public such a decision, let’s hope it creates a long term spike in awareness about the prevention of breast cancer.

Cross dressing Richard Branson generates miles of coverage
 

Readers of the Hindustan Times, Mail Today and The Economic Times on Monday were greeted with the far from uplifting sight of Richard Branson in a skirt .As AP put it, “The Virgin Group founder had his legs shaved, put on lipstick and squeezed into a red skirt to honour a bet by serving as a flight attendant on Sunday on an AirAsia trip from Perth, Australia, to Malaysia.”

The story said the reason for this avatar was the loss of a bet to AirAsia chief Tony Fernandez over whose team would finish ahead in Formula 1 racing. Branson’s presence certainly drew media mileage for the promotional flight that helped raise money for an Australian foundation for hospitalised children.

Branson, no stranger to PR stunts, jumped off a building in India in 2008 for the launch of Virgin Mobile, dressed in clothes better suited to a Maharaja themed big fat Indian wedding than a sultry Indian morning.

Here’s a list of some up of his best-known stunts.

Bad PR
 

Government of India launches cross media campaign: "The India Story Over Nine Years" 
 

The Government of India is trying to take a break from the constant pillorying over scams, corrupt ministers, dual centres of power and the face-off with China over border intrusions in Ladhak. It’s a roll call of PR horrors, perhaps only relieved by the convincing victory in the Karnataka state elections.

Things have reached such a level of criticism that CNN-IBN’s Rajdeep Sardesai warned on his popular evening show, India@9, that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s legacy is in jeopardy of being nothing more than that of a private secretary to the UPA Government.

In the middle of all this raging critique, the clumsily named Information and Broadcasting ministry has decided to launch a campaign, called "The India Story over 9 Years". As per Hindustan Times, this showcases UPA's key pro-poor programmes and public delivery schemes with 13 ad spots and a soundtrack. These ads, directed by Parineeta film maker, Pradip Sarkar, will be shown in 11 languages across TV, radio and print.

The jingle is sung by Bollywood singers Shaan and Sunidhi. Too early to say this is good PR yet, as the ad campaign has been slammed by the Opposition, not that there is any surprise there. While the Government has been at pains to say that this is not the launch of an election campaign ,the UPA must hope that these ads do not go the BJP’s “India Shining” route . We all know what happened there.

Take a look at some of the early political ads, during the Republican primaries, for the US Presidential Elections 2012.

Have you seen any great or even bad PR?
 

Contact Paarul Chand by emailing paarul@prmoment.in or tweet @PaarulC or @PRmomentIndia throughout the week and we’ll happily credit you for your trouble.