Today we’re happy to bring you a guest post from friend of the site Shawn Paul Wood. Shawn is a PR and copywriting professional with more than 20 years’ experience in the field, and he spent 12 of those years as an on-air host and radio news director. He currently writes for HCK2 Partners in Dallas and contributes to Talent Zoo‘s Flack Me blog; his clients range from notable corporate giants to megachurches, entrepreneurs and even a couple of entertainment bigwigs. Follow him on Twitter!

We have all heard the aphorism, “All news is good news.” One of the champions of that familiar saying is Sir Richard Branson, social media “influencer” and CEO of all things Virgin, who put the sentiment to the test when his airline expanded its routes to Scotland this week.

After appearing at the airliner door and traipsing down the stairs to the tarmac, he took his position on a literal promo platform to discuss the plane’s maiden voyage to Edinburgh. He then lifted his kilt so as to better display a new, um, marketing slogan: “Stiff Competition.”

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Pope Benedict XVI‘s visit to Britain turned out to be PR-positive, reports suggest. The Vancouver Sun runs an AFP round-up on the impression he made, quoting Catherine Pepinster, editor of The Tablet newspaper, a British Catholic weekly, who wrote, “What the visit accomplished above all was to unify Catholics and humanise a pope who has so often been perceived as cold, aloof and authoritarian.”

As PRNewser previously reported, his four-day tour of Britain, which ended yesterday, had potential pitfalls written all over it for his press team.

The article in the Sun quotes the Daily Mail newspaper as offering that “this was a much more successful visit than the Roman Catholic hierarchy had dared to hope.”

It references The Tablet again to suggest that the Pope’s focus on bringing Anglicans and Catholics closer, and resulting comments on common traditions and culture, played a large role in changing perceptions.