Banning Fawlty Towers is the stunt of the year

I will be judging the award for best PR campaigns at The Drum awards later this year, and there’s already a massive frontrunner in my mind. The anonymous executive with an eye for mischief who has banned Fawlty Towers has done something absolutely brilliant. Let me explain.

Any great publicity stunt combines celebrity with controversy.

I refuse to believe that political correctness has gone this far. Fawlty Towers, endlessly voted the nation’s favourite sitcom, banned with immediate affect for racism!? I know a stunt when I see one and I spotted this one straight away.

Think about it.

Who had even heard of UKTV? Who had heard of this great and rich catacomb of the nation’s favourite television!? Nobody! Yet now it’s all the nation can talk about.

Covid, Black Lives Matter, Trump accusing an old man of falling over too hard, the launch of the new PlayStation, schools closed, zoos open and the economy contracting by 20%!? Who cares! Who killed Fawlty Towers!?

It’s genius.

And now it’s only a matter of time until the nation’s grumpy-granddad John Cleese enters the fray – ensuring that this story does another victory lap of the media agenda.

I advise whoever is behind this to enter every PR competition out there.