{"id":129251,"date":"2020-03-24T17:13:19","date_gmt":"2020-03-24T16:13:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/?p=129251"},"modified":"2020-03-24T17:25:15","modified_gmt":"2020-03-24T16:25:15","slug":"labour-calls-on-the-pr-industry-to-help-curb-panic-buying-during-the-covid-19-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/blog\/labour-calls-on-the-pr-industry-to-help-curb-panic-buying-during-the-covid-19-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Labour calls on the PR industry to help curb panic buying during the COVID-19 crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

While panic buying is causing empty shelves across the UK\u2019s stores and preventing vulnerable people\u2019s access to essential items, Labour has called on the PR and advertising industries to join efforts to better educate the public with campaigns using #covid19advert<\/a> and #dontshoptillyoudrop<\/a> hashtags across social media. <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018Panic buying is causing real harm to vulnerable groups and creating anxiety amongst all,\u2019 said Labour\u2019s Shadow Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary Luke Pollard. \u2018Ministers have not reacted fast enough or far enough, and that is why Labour is calling for a mobilisation of advertising and PR agencies to create new TV adverts, newspaper, digital and billboard advertising to take on panic buying.<\/p>\n

\u2018Those who specialise in persuading us to buy products now have the opportunity to save lives with their work. Please step up and help. We need people to do the right thing at this time of national crisis: shop sensibly, stay at home and slow the spread of the virus.\u2019<\/p>\n

The PR and comms industry has already been working to support both the businesses they work with and the general public to adapt to life during the outbreak. Labour\u2019s urging for more from an industry ideally placed to communicate best practice during difficult times is particularly welcomed by in-house PR Harold Podol at Modern World Business Solutions<\/a>, who is already planning how his team can help spread the message.<\/p>\n

\u2018I am truly appreciative to Labour for spreading and pushing this campaign, as it needed to be started. We\u2019ve spent our careers creating viral campaigns and building out marketing strategies that go global. We\u2019re naturally trained and skilled in spreading the word.<\/p>\n

\u2018We felt a fair portion of people bulk buying were relatively young, so while most others will be pushing this campaign on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, we thought we\u2019d try to reach a different audience set by making videos on TikTok to spread the word. We have also been reaching out to influencers we\u2019ve worked in the past about making a video.\u2019<\/p>\n

Even where panic buying is bolstering profits for independent companies seeing a surge in sales, the impact is causing unnecessary pressure. Sales at craft company Stitch & Story<\/a> have increased by over 900% when compared to the same period in 2019 \u2013 good for the bottom line, but the team are struggling with demand as people take up knitting to pass the time in self-isolation.<\/p>\n

\u2018We\u2019re hearing from customers who are worried that a lockdown will stop businesses such as ours from functioning and we are having to reaffirm that it is business as usual,\u2019 says co-founder Jen Hoang, who has joined calls for the public to stop panic buying.<\/p>\n

Some agencies already creating free campaigns to support #covid19advert and #dontshoptillyoudrop include Scribe PR and One Minute Brief, who have challenged people to take part in creating posters to stop panic buying<\/a>. How many more will choose to support the effort remains to be seen, but the quick reaction to the COVID-19 crisis from the PR industry shows it has the tools to communicate the right message when it matters.<\/p>\n

Read more on how you and your agency can help with the initiative to better educate the public on panic buying in the full statement from Labour here<\/a>. <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Labour has called on the PR and advertising industries to join efforts to stop panic buying with #covid19advert and #dontshoptillyoudrop campaigns <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":423,"featured_media":129255,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7365,7383,7272,3695],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129251"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/423"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129251"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":129257,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129251\/revisions\/129257"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}