This video from UNICEF Sweden is a powerful reminder that Facebook Likes don’t really mean much, despite the obsession by some in the advertising and marketing business. In UNICEF’s case it quite literally tells us that Facebook Likes don’t save lives.

Picture from UNICEF Sverige Flickr.

Since the launch a lot of the initial hype about Twitter’s six second Vine videos has thankfully died down. The latest to use Vine is the White House which has used it for the first time to promote the annual White House Science Fair.

I was a sceptic at launch and remain so, but am reserving final judgment until I’ve had an opportunity to use it properly myself. Which won’t happen until an Android version is available.

The issue that I’ve got is that compared to a tweet six seconds is just too long, I could read lots of tweets in that time. As I use HootSuite and rarely visit the Twitter website I’d never see it as embedded media. Therefore I’d only click on the link if I knew it was worth clicking first. The flip side of it being too long is that six seconds is also too short to do much worthwhile.

After three months there are still a lack of good examples, although there are a lot of examples of people talking about good examples which turn out not to be! If you think you’ve seen good examples that I’ve missed then please let me know in the comments.

Bill Nye @thescienceguy & @levarburton welcome you to the #WHScienceFair! vine.co/v/bP7JIZtYxrK

— The White House (@whitehouse) April 22, 2013

The predictions are that 2013 is the year when video becomes an even more important corporate communications and PR channel than it already is. The problem I’ve got is that personally I think a lot of the ‘great’ videos that people share are just more than a bit rubbish. However, just as I’m thinking how hard it is to find great examples to use when I’m doing PR training, two brilliant ones come along at once.

The first and my favourite is from Dansk Metal, the Danish Metalworkers’ Union, and is in Danish with sub-titles, but don’t let that put you off. It’s packed with strong messages and emotion and the style will be familiar to anyone who’s a fan of Danish TV like The Killing or especially Borgen.

I found this via Danish diplomat Karen Melchior.

The second is to mark the fiftieth anniversary of McClaren and was produced by advertising agency VCCP. I found it via my former employee Jed Hallam who’s not only an accomplished social business ‘rock star’, but also a successful author.

If I’ve one criticism of both videos is that they are a bit too long. At the start both could probably be edited as you’re asking a lot of the audience to stick with them to the end, which for both are the best bits.

Much has been written about the role that social media played in the Egyptian revolution. Online PR and marketing author and speaker David Meerman Scott has been in Egypt teaching a social media master class and in this video asks if social media can be used to help bring tourists back to Egypt?

I try not to watch BBC Watchdog as it tends to annoy me with its fake concern for consumers, when it’s just making cheap ‘shock’ TV. But I’m glad I caught last Thursday’s as it contained a brilliant performance by Hussein Lalani, the entrepreneurial CEO of a family owned retail business. The 99p Stores is a fast growing value retail chain and for some bizarre reason Watchdog decided to make it the victim of one of its usual hatchet jobs.

The allegation was that 99p Stores was ripping off consumers by using misleading price claim signs such as ‘Amazing Value’, ‘Mega Deals’, ‘We will not be beaten on price’ and ‘Unbeatable Value’. On some products it also has price comparison labels on the shelves.

Watchdog’s complaint was that a lot of these labels were wrong, which does on the face of it seem rather outrageous. However, Watchdog’s own research found that most of the time 99p Stores was still actually cheaper than the comparison. Not so outrageous, in fact it makes me rather want to go to a 99p store and spend my pennies.

Watchdog’s chief attack dog is veteran TV presenter Anne Robinson, who has a reputation of being particularly aggressive, so it’s a brave business person who agrees to be humiliated by her. It is why companies so frequently resort to the tactic of simply sending a statement that can be read out.

That’s why I was surprised that the 99p Stores CEO agreed to the studio interview. However, once it started you could see why. He was brilliant and for once you saw an unfairly maligned business turning the tables on Watchdog.

The moment when Hussein Lalani apologises and says the misleading signs will be removed and then whips the new replacement poster out of his pocket is genius. The new poster makes the simple factual claim that ‘According to BBC Watchdog research 82.5% of the time we do beat the leading supermarkets.’ Anne Robinson continued to flounder for the rest of the interview as Hussein kept responding politely making her appear to be rude, petty and unreasonable.

Watch the whole report for context or jump to 5m 36s for the interview. It’s an excellent crisis communications case study and one that I’ll be using in my online PR crisis communications training in future.

After the interview Hussein also did a great job of using social media to engage with both supporters and critics on Twitter and YouTube.

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Social media crisis comms – outflanking the Sunday Times (stuartbruce.biz)

It’s presented by Russell Goldsmith of Marketiersdc and guests are Iain Anderson, of Cicero Consulting and Tamasin Cave, director of Spinwatch and leader of the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency.

It’s hard to achieve cut through at international property conference MIPIM in Cannes as cities vie with each other in ever more extravagant ways to attract the attention of investors and real estate professionals. But I think Stockholm achieved it with this fabulously innovative presentation by two Swedish magicians using seven iPads. It’s worth watching for entertaining, education and inspiration.

Yesterday a poll about the Day of Action for the BBC showed that 61% of the public believe public sector workers are justified in going on strike over pension changes. It will be interesting to see if this figure changes during and after the strike as people feel the personal impact on their own lives.

To help maintain public support the TUC is creating and curating videos like this rework of Roxy Music’s Let’s Work Together. It has also made the song available as a download.

At the time of writing the video has had just shy of 20,000 views.

Billy wants a puppy so he has to lobby his parents. Hill & Knowlton in Canada the USA has put this promotional video together to help demonstrate the positive side of public affairs and lobbying – how experts can help you communicate with government.