PR Stunts
A ‘PR stunt’ or ‘publicity stunt’ is a public relations campaign, typically a one-off event, that is designed to create public awareness via news stories and features in the media, shareable content on social media and with influencers, to help publicise a brand.
Umpf has been delivering PR stunts for brands for more than 15 years, in the process winning four ‘PR Stunt of the Year’ awards (see more on our awards). Read on for:
- Five top UK PR stunts
- Six Umpf PR Stunts
Five Top UK PR stunts
Here’s five of the best PR stunts carried out in the UK:
1. Barbie’s Pink Street PR Stunt
Is this one of the most colourful PR stunts ever? In November 1997, to promote Barbie, Mattel created a worldwide ‘pink month’ marketing campaign. In the UK, Mattel turned an entire Salford street pink (Ash Street in Manchester – you can see it here on Google Maps). Working for two days, teams spray-painted houses, lampposts and rooftops and the pink spray stayed on for a whole month. The residents received cash and local groups received Barbie dolls. The visually-striking PR stunt landed press coverage and plaudits across the world and purportedly achieved more than 100 million reach back when ‘going viral’ wasn’t even a thing.
Did you know?
A legal battle ensued in the following years between the artist and the agency as to who came up with the PR stunt idea.
2. Virgin Atlantic: BA Can’t Get It Up PR Stunt
Image credit: www.btnews.co.uk
Sticking with the late ’90s, it was an era when Virgin Atlantic and British Airways played PR stunt warfare, the most famous of which was the “BA can’t get it up” PR stunt. To set the scene, BA was lead sponsor of the just-being-built London Eye (it was called ‘The British Airways London Eye’ and BA had the naming rights from 1999-2008). On Friday 10 September 1999, the world’s press were due to attend the unveiling with the giant Ferris wheel being raised but there was a technical issue which meant it wouldn’t go up. Virgin’s PR team hired a small airship with the words “BA can’t get it up” emblazoned across it and the pictures secured Virgin Atlantic headlines around the world at BA’s expense.
Did you know?
Richard Branson described it as his “best stunt ever”.
3. Missing Type PR Stunt
In 2015, NHS Blood and Transplant created one of the UK’s most memorable PR stunts: the ‘Missing Type’ campaign. To encourage blood donors with A, B, and O blood types, the letters A, B and O were removed from brands, signs, and landmarks across the UK. The Downing Street sign, above, went on to become the iconic image of the PR stunt and. During the two-week activation, more than 30,000 people signed up as donors. It was named Campaign of the Decade by PR Week.
Did you know?
Only three brands changed their physical signage (Downing Street being the main one), but the campaign really took off on social media where brands joined in with digital versions of their logos.
4. Marcelo Bielsa Street Renaming PR Stunt
Sticking with signage, this footfall-driving PR stunt by Umpf for Trinity Leeds – where a street was renamed in honour of the manager of just-promoted Leeds United – landed global headlines and was named PR Stunt of the Year 2020. The brief was to create a footfall-driving, brand awareness campaign for shopping centre Trinity Leeds to celebrate the promotion of Leeds United to the Premier League. Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best and this low-cost PR stunt generated 800+ pieces of logo-branded media coverage from around the world. The much-talked about and much-photographed campaign helped drive footfall and created a lasting photo-moment legacy. Read more on Umpf’s PR stunt.
Did you know?
The campaign was almost rejected by the client who wanted to do a different, more expensive PR stunt idea.
5. Banksy Self-Shredding Art PR Stunt
Camera-shy activist artist Banksy secured a place in the top tier of UK PR stunts in 2018 when his 2006 ‘Girl with Balloon’ artwork self-shredded moments after it had been sold at a London suction house for £1m. The stunt made waves around the world. Banksy said he’d secretly created a built-in shredder should it ever come up at auction. Gallery owner John Brandler said Banksy was “the ultimate publicity artist” adding it was an “absolutely brilliant PR stunt”.
Did you know?
The person who bought the artwork which then self-shredded – an unnamed woman from Europe – later sold the part-shredded painting (renamed ‘Love is in the Bin’) for £18,582,00, trousering a little over £17,000,000 in profit.
Six Umpf PR Stunts
Since 2015 Umpf has been creating and delivering PR stunts for our UK clients. They range from fast-turnaround, low-cost stunts to bigger brand activations, months in the planning. Here’s six of our own favourite PR stunts:
1. The World’s Biggest Santa Skate PR Stunt for Clark’s Village shopping outlet
Our ‘World’s Biggest Santa Skate’ event transformed the annual Clark’s Village Christmas Ice Rink into a show-stopping, buzz-worthy spectacle that captured imaginations. For the 2024 opening of the shopping outlet’s ice rink, we invited guests in Santa suits to join a record-breaking skate. We delivered a creative event that epitomised festive fun, created lasting memories, engaged the community and spread a huge dollop of Christmas cheer. As well as significant media coverage (52 clippings with more than 100m reach) there was glowing feedback from guests, media, and our client – plus a sleigh-full of increased footfall and sales.
Read the full case study on the World’s Biggest Santa Skate PR Stunt
2. Up Yours I Quit PR Stunt
Our PR stunt for multilotto.co.uk was aimed at the average lottery player – hard working people who dream of a big break. This gave us the idea to create a tongue-in-cheek campaign aimed at the average, disgruntled worker. The campaign started with some consumer research, which give us our idea: one person polled said that they’d tell their boss ‘up yours I quit’ if they won the lottery. From this, we created a headline-grabbing car PR stunt, video content and social outreach, driving (pun intended) 375m impressions, 197 media articles and a 600% spike in site traffic.
Read the full ‘up yours i quit’ PR stunt case study, which includes the behind-the-scenes making-of video.
3. The Wee Big Yins Billy Connolly PR Stunt in Glasgow
For our ‘Wee Big Yins’ PR stunt to support Buchanan Galleries’ charity partner, Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity, we commissioned a bespoke set of limited-edition minifigures to celebrate the illustrious career and multi-talents of Glaswegian Billy Connolly. The ‘Wee Big Yins’ were sold at Buchanan Galleries with every penny going to charity. It was was a huge success, not just in generating media coverage and driving footfall to the centre, but also in breaking a charity record. Such was the stunt’s success, Sir Billy Connolly himself even commented that it was one of the highlights of his career.
Read the full case study on our Wee Big Yins Glasgow PR stunt
4. Hotel ‘bagvertisers’ PR Stunt
For our PR stunt in Mallorca for European hotel chain Cook’s Club, we created a new, tongue-in-cheek advertising medium: ‘bagvertising’ where holidaymakers can have their suitcase turned into sponsored luggage. We then launched a search to find some ‘bagvertisers’ who would be happy to swap their existing suitcases for Cook’s Club hotel-branded luggage in exchange for free holidays. As well social and influencer content, the PR stunt generated national media headlines – see above.
5. Leeds United PR Stunt Can Be Seen for ‘Smiles’
In May 2025, to celebrate Leeds United securing promotion to the Premier League and to capitalise on the 150,000 attending the promotion parade in the city, we created a PR stunt for Trinity Leeds shopping centre. First, we created a 306 square-metre LUFC ‘smiley’ club crest, as seen on that season’s cult third kit, and emblazoned it on top of the centre’s glass-domed roof with selfie spots stationed around the centre; we then created a ‘wall of support’ allowing fans to write personal messages to the club. The PR stunt achieved 44 pieces of coverage with a 24.2m reach and drove tens of thousands of extra customers into the shopping centre, including 2,481 people who wrote a message on the ‘wall of support’.
6. Blooming Marvellous White Rose Yorkshire PR Stunt
Our PR stunt for White Rose shopping centre was pretty literal: we created the UK’s largest bouquet of white roses. The Yorkshire Day PR stunt created a high-impact visual with liberal use of ‘White Rose’ messaging. As well as landing two front page picture stories, and 23 pieces of coverage, more than 2,000 customers each received a free white rose once the bouquet was dismantled – a blooming marvellous PR stunt.
Read the full Blooming Marvellous PR stunt case study.
The Power of PR Stunts: Why They Work
A PR stunt is most effective when bookended by ongoing PR support so that the brand is not just visible, comet-like: a brief big flash of brand awareness, a narrowing trail of publicity, then nothing. Done well, and interspersed with an always-on Press Office, PR stunts have many advantages for brands, such as:
- Generating media buzz
- Driving social shares
- Creating viral content
- Enhancing brand visibility
- Adding SEO and backlink benefits
- Creating emotional connections
- Delivering great brand marketing ROI