You may have heard of the “Sh&t My Dad Says” Twitter feed, started by Justin Halpern on his return home to live with his parents in 2009. It comprised quotations from Halpern’s father (Sam) on various subjects and now stands at almost 3 million followers. It became hugely popular and in 2010 the book by the same name was released. Five weeks after its release, the book was #1 on the New York Times Best Seller list. This little nugget of advice was my personal favourite:

“Don’t focus on the one guy who hates you. You don’t go to the park and set your picnic down next to the only pile of dog sh*t.”

So why am I talking about a grumpy old man’s ramblings on my blog? Well that leads me smoothly onto my own father (no offence intended). Don’t get my wrong, I love my dad. He has raised my son for me while I pursue my dreams. He is a leg-end. But he is also one of the most opinionated people I know. And his favourite time to grumble is when watching the news. What’s fascinating about this is, for a man so alien to the ways of the Public Relations world (he tells people I work in the civil service because he doesn’t understand what I do), he actually kind of gets it. PR I mean. Granted, he isn’t always complimentary about it, but I work in the voluntary sector. He can live with that.

So here’s some (PR) Sh*t My Dad Has Said In The Last Week to entertain you on “hump day”…

On politicians visiting NI flood areas:

“Oh aye, wheel him out. Can’t even lift them sandbags. Look at his designer wellies, the soles aren’t even worn out in them. What they don’t show you is the stylist that picked that scarf out for him so he’d look “down with the people”. Or the lines of police holding the wee old biddies back from smacking him over the head with their purses. You wouldn’t half know it’s an election year. And all that talk about “making resources available”. Who chose those words for him, one of your lot (a PR person)? Sure weren’t they the ones that cut the funding in the first place?!”

On royalty visiting UK flood areas:

“Look at him making a scene about the photographers being there. Sure I thought he was in the army, shouldn’t he be working there anyway? No doubt it was his press office that tipped the paparazzi off in the first place. Sure they wouldn’t want to miss out on a PR opportunity like that what with all that shooting animals business in the papers last week.”

On the Winter Olympics:

“They’re (the government) not getting the same feel-good factor from this as they did in London 2012. Something will have to be done about that before we all realise we’re being squeezed economically to within an inch of our lives. Else there’ll be riots. That royal wedding was as good a PR stunt if ever I seen one. They’ll force your one to get married. The other prince. (Dad, he doesn’t have a girlfriend). They’ll find him one. But they’d better not tell him they set it up. It’ll be a long time before they forget the PR disaster the last time they played Cilla Black (Charles and Diana).”

The more I write, the more I think I could write my own book!

What’s the funniest things you’ve heard people say about PR?