It’s every PR’s nightmare! That heart-stopping moment when the campaign you’ve spent weeks perfecting suddenly becomes…well, unlaunchable.
That’s exactly what happened to Manchester-based The PR Barn, who found themselves staring down the world’s largest set of Turkey Teeth when their client’s latest stunt was spectacularly derailed by some after comments by Rylan Clark on ITV’s This Morning sparked a backlash and a media frenzy.
The campaign, for Slice Mobile, which was not endorsed by Rylan, was supposed to celebrate the launch of new international roaming add-ons with a cheeky nod to the “Turkey Teeth” trend. To bring it to life, the team had commissioned a 20ft inflatable caricature of Rylan Clark, whiter-than-white grin gleaming, ready to charm departing holidaymakers at Manchester Airport.
Then the call came.
“’Rylan’s just made some comments about immigration on This Morning’,” recalls Jack Rigby, PR Director at The PR Barn. “My heart sank. We had a lot invested in this campaign and I knew we’d have to pull the plug.”
Cue a soul-crushing but undeniably comic moment as the giant Rylan slowly deflated behind Jack, while the onlookers snapped the the scene.
In the words of Slice Mobile’s Marketing Director, Jenna Banks: “This just wasn’t on our 2025 bingo card. Our brand’s about connecting people and community, so while we’d spent months planning this, it was an easy call to make.”
Instead of sulking, the team did what great PRs do best…they pivoted. Quickly.
They filmed the chaos, complete with awkward phone calls, panicked glances, and the glorious line: “We’re going to have to send him back!” The resulting video – dripping with The Office-style humour – shows you can turn a PR disaster into a self-aware masterclass in damage control.
Rigby added: “This kind of thing happens more often than you might expect, one minute you have a PR campaign ready to go out and the next minute there’s a major incident or a celebrity does something unexpected, the news agenda changes and the best made plans go awry.”
The trick for Rigby was to own it — and make it funny. And that they did. Bravo! As for Rylan’s comments on This Morning, they have since amassed over 700 complaints with Ofcom and clips continue to circle on social media.
The stunt had been commissioned by Slice Mobile, the intention was for the brand to talk about Turkey Teeth and how people had been stung by international roaming charges when visiting places like Turkey for cosmetic work. Rylan had topped a celebrity poll for having the best Turkey Teeth beating Simon Cowell and Rob Beckett.
Rigby said: “We had everything set for a fantastic campaign which talked about how people were planning trips abroad to get their teeth done. It was the perfect vehicle for the brand to talk about international data roaming charges, with people hit by unexpected bills of £180 on their return. Rylan had been voted as the celeb with the best Hollywood smile beating Simon Cowell, Rob Beckett and Kim Kardasian to name but a few. The inflatable was going to be used as a fun parody backdrop for gathering interviews with holiday makers about their own experiences with international roaming charges and whether they had plans to head abroad for cosmetics.”
