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Plain English Villians award 2021

Nick Clegg


Clegg has for some time fought fires on behalf of Facebook, which has rightly drawn huge criticism for allowing dangerous misinformation to run unchecked on its pages. Now Facebook has been rebranded (‘Meta’), Clegg is busy steamrollering adverse publicity that has arisen. One example of which is his suggestion that “The vast majority of content on Facebook is babies, barbecues and bar mitzvahs”. Such comment, as the Washington Post suggested, is ‘highly curated’ – if it continues to host electioneering nonsense, Meta will be ever-reliant on Clegg’s own misinformation.


Everyone’s Cringing At Nick Clegg’s Bizarre Appearance In A Weird Facebook Video | HuffPost UK News (huffingtonpost.co.uk) (opens a new window)


BrewDog


Earlier this year, BrewDog served up some crock-of-gold gubbins that the Advertising Standards Agency rightly deemed ‘misleading’. The Scottish brewer offered the opportunity for 10 lucky customers to find ‘solid gold’ cans worth £15,000 in their cases of beer. The cans in question were, in fact, made of ‘gold-plated brass’.


In its ruling, the watchdog adjudged: "Because the ads stated that the prize included a solid gold can when that was not the case, we concluded the ads were misleading."


Winner of BrewDog’s ‘solid gold’ beer can finds prize is made largely of brass | Food & drink industry | The Guardian (opens a new window)


GB News


Apart from making Andrew Neil look even more orange, GB News, a new ‘news’ TV station, was notable in 2021 for giving a platform to Fox News-style rabble-rousers. (See also: Foot in Mouth runner-up.) The station contains very little objective news and is best dismissed as shrilly diverting rubbish.


GB News: Neil Oliver panned after saying he'd 'cheerfully risk catching Covid for freedom' | The National (opens a new window)


Doncaster Council (GELP 21 – Global Leaders Education Plan) “Strategic vision & a new paradigm”)

Teeside University

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