Schools preparing to break up for seemingly endless holidays and the office air conditioning doing overtime can mean only one thing – we are about to enter silly season.
Yes, its that time when frivolous news comes to the fore and the term ‘newsworthy’ takes on a more relaxed definition from the one we use on our media training courses.
It is a time when even the most bizarre of story pitches and ideas can generate widespread coverage.
And this year it seems to have started particularly early. As it’s Friday we have decided to put together our favourite stories so far from this year’s silly season.
Vladamir Putin’s face found in steak
No that’s not a mis-steak. A number of newspapers have covered the crucial news of a shopper finding the face of Vladamir Putin in the freezer section of his local Aldi.
Shopper Matt Gordon reportedly did a double-take after seeing the ‘uncanny resemblance’ of Putin staring back at him from a pack of £2.99 Aberdeen Angus sizzle steaks.
He told The Sun: “The resemblance was amazing. My Aberdeen Angus sizzle steak looked just like Vladimir Putin.
“I walked past it a couple of times and each time it looked more and more like Putin.”
Mr Gordon thought better of buying the product, saying: “I didn’t buy it in the end. I didn’t want to be responsible for sizzling Vladimir Putin. Who knows what might have happened to me. I might have ended up being well done myself.”
Shopper shocked to discover Vladimir Putin's face in an Aldi steak https://t.co/dxjVyEP9Ml pic.twitter.com/ywCflfINPA
— LADbible (@ladbible) July 9, 2019
Aldi shopper in Croydon was stunned to see the face of Vladimir Putin staring back at him in the meat isle! People are now RUSSIAN to buy their own oligarch! #wtf #forth1 #mosCOW #meatface pic.twitter.com/yG1gHS0ISQ
— Arlene Stuart (@RadioArlene) July 11, 2019
Cheeky starfish
The Mirror has brought us the important story of a starfish which went viral because of its ‘peachy bum’.
The story was based on a picture, taken at California’s Aquarium of the Pacific and posted on Twitter, where the creature seemed to have a human-like bum – and quite a nice one at that according to social media users.
The explanation for the ‘Stardashian’ phenomenon was slightly less exciting with a curator from the aquarium revealing the bum cheeks were actually two lumps of the starfish’s internal organs.
Saw a thicc ass starfish at the aquarium today 😌 pic.twitter.com/NwF0xYabHQ
— あかり(AKARI) (@Babyshoujo) June 30, 2019
Tupac’s South Coast bench
Unless you live in the Brighton area you may have missed the story of a memorial plaque to rapper Tupac Shakur appearing on a park bench in the sleepy village of Lancing.
The story about the unauthorised plaque followed a bench being installed in Newhaven in honour of another American rapper Eazy-E.
The, er, moving tribute read ‘In loving memory of 2Pac Shakur’ – followed by a four-letter expletive aimed at Newhaven, as the South Coast of Britain appears to play out its own version of the infamous East Coast-West Coast rap rivalry.
Local rap fans said they hoped it would bring the local hip-hop community and ‘people who like benches’ together.
A spokesperson from the parish council, who reportedly needed to carry out a Google background search on Tupac, said the council was not particularly impressed with his music. They also confirmed the plaque would be removed.
'Pac’s killer was never found, so they could easily have been from #Lancing' #Tupac https://t.co/0HKO8UEFdB pic.twitter.com/3guB2aDDTs
— Brighton Argus (@brightonargus) July 16, 2019
Beating airline baggage rules
Pretty much every news outlet has covered the story of a man who wore 15 jumpers to avoid paying extra baggage fees.
John Irvine, 46, removed the clothes from his suitcase to sidestep a £96 charge.
His son filmed the dodging tactic and shared it on social media where it went viral.
But it wasn’t just the tabloids who picked up on the story. It was also covered by the Independent and The Guardian among others.
How to beat airline baggage rules, Glasgow style: wear all your clothes at once. When John Irvine’s luggage tipped the scales at Nice airport, he wasn’t about to pay the excess fee. https://t.co/XchEbp8OGV
— alain servais (@aservais1) July 9, 2019
Name change denied
It was the paper of choice of the intellectual left which reported the vital news of a football fan who was denied the right to change his name to that of his favourite club.
The Guardian revealed that Swedish man David Lind had won a competition for people considering changing their name to their favourite English team.
But his application to become known at Tottenham was rejected by the relevant authority, Skatteverket.
A disappointed Mr Lind told the paper: “It looks as if you can be called pretty much everything in Sweden but not Tottenham. It is not any more natural to be called Newcastle, Arsenal, Liverpool or Guiseley.
“There are a lot of people with strange names in Sweden. There is even someone called Potato. Maybe someone at Skatteverket is an Arsenal fan?”
David Lind is definitely one of us. https://t.co/hNxxSWnVtn
— LJohnson (@lazqetjohnson) July 15, 2019
Goat yoga
Silly season doesn’t just affect the print media – broadcast channels get in on the act as well.
Last year Sky News filled the news lull with an Alan Partridge style item titled ‘Why do northern dogs' tails wag more?’
Just this week we saw a segment between BBC newsreader Simon McCoy and weather presenter Nick Miller descend into farce as they discussed a story about goats which are being used to eat their way through the dry grass in America to prevent wildfires from breaking out.
And the duo were reduced to fits of giggles when then subject moved on to ‘goat yoga’.
🐐If you missed goat yoga popping up in yesterday's forecast, here's a treat for you... 🐐 😂 pic.twitter.com/QyjrB6NDUl
— BBC Weather (@bbcweather) July 16, 2019
Clearly, this intended to be light-hearted blog, but is there is a media training lesson to be learnt here?
One thing all these weird and wonderful stories have in common is they are unusual.
And that unusual factor is a key element of what journalists look for in a story, in or out of silly season. On our media training courses, we describe what makes something newsworthy through the acronym TRUTH. It means they are looking for something Topical, Relevant, Unusual, has an element of Trouble and Human interest.
While you may not be able to match the level of ‘unusual’ reached in the stories outlined above, it’s worth remembering journalists are always looking for a story which will surprise their audience and make them sit-up and take note.
If something is the biggest, the smallest, the tallest, the first or the last, for example, it is likely to be something that ticks that unusual box and gains media interest.
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