As public relations disasters go, Yorkshire Water must be squirming this morning. If they’re not, they should be.
BBC Breakfast has just highlighted the embarrassing deficiencies in a Yorkshire Water promotional video, featuring beautiful aerial shots of sweeping ‘Yorkshire’ countryside.
The problem is that it’s not Yorkshire – it’s actually footage of the Malvern Hills, bought from a video production company.
It gets worse. Further footage of a happy motorist, supposedly driving through Yorkshire, was actually filmed in…Ukraine. The clue was that he was driving a car with left-hand drive.
Oh, and a cosy Yorkshire pub turns out to be somewhere in Russia.
BBC Breakfast did a brilliant hatchet job, including getting environmental champion Feargal Sharkey to take the mickey. In the meantime, the water company is getting slaughtered on social media.
As the BBC noted, Yorkshire Water – in the wake of being condemned over its appalling record on releasing sewage into rivers – is in hot water.
The scary thing is that not only did someone produce this video, but someone higher up signed it off, and I can’t help trying to imagine the conversation that went on:
“Hey, this is great! Is this footage from Yorkshire?”
“Er, no – it’s from Herefordshire, Ukraine and Russia.”
“Oh, well…it looks fantastic. Let’s roll with it – no-one will know.”
According to the BBC, the video has now been replaced by a film shot in Harrogate, which is definitely in Yorkshire, so that’s progress.
However, the very clear lesson for every business out there is to avoid using stock imagery that’s going to make you look stupid, and result in widespread ridicule. It’s not rocket science.
By the way, the video starts with the question: “At Yorkshire Water, we want to know who you turn to for advice.”
Clearly not Yorkshire Water, is my answer.
