Stunt Watch: Specsavers goes clubbing, a new uniform for Girl Guides and Google Reviews gone mad

After a brief hiatus, Stunt Watch is back.

And thankfully, brands have kept themselves busy while we’ve been away. This week we’ve got aging ravers, a long-overdue wardrobe update and possibly the best-worst Google review ever written. Let’s get into it.

Specsavers – The Testlist

Specsavers has teamed up with Groove Armada to launch The Testlist: a club guestlist for over-50s that can only be unlocked by completing an online hearing test. Smart.

We have an aging nation, but not necessarily one that wants to act its age. The original ravers are still raving, still going to festivals and still insisting the best set they’ve ever seen was “before your time.” Unfortunately, their ears have also had several decades of standing far too close to a speaker.

The Testlist taps into that brilliantly. It doesn’t patronise over-50s or serve them the usual beige health messaging (not that Specsavers would). Instead, it celebrates the fact they created rave culture while giving them a genuinely useful nudge to practice safe sets.

Groove Armada also makes complete sense. Both members have experienced hearing problems, so it feels credible rather than a celebrity partnership plucked from the nearest nineties playlist.

A health campaign that gets people tested by promising them another night of loud music. Slightly ironic. Very Specsavers.

Girlguiding - Launch a new design

I remember being a young girl and wanting to join Brownies. Not because I loved the great outdoors, but genuinely I thought the uniform looked cool, so this campaign is really one for me.

Girlguiding has redesigned its uniform for the first time in more than 30 years, and crucially, it actually asked the girls wearing it what they wanted.

Nearly 55,000 girls and adult volunteers helped shape the new collection, which has been designed around comfort, accessibility and letting members express themselves. There are sensory-friendly details, hidden pockets, thumb holes and far more freedom over how everything can be worn.

My first question is – what took them so long! It’s cute. But it’s also more important than it might first appear.

We spend a lot of time talking about how to get children off their screens and into the real world. Making organisations like Girlguiding feel accessible and genuinely built for a new generation is a pretty good place to start.

The best part of the campaign, for me, isn’t really the uniform. It’s the consultation. Girlguiding didn’t just redesign something for young people; it redesigned it with them.

Turns out, if you want the next generation to join in, asking what they actually want is a real start.

New Bedford Whaling Museum – The Worst Aquarium Ever

When New Bedford Whaling Museum received a one-star Google review branding it the “worst aquarium ever”, there was just one problem: it isn’t an aquarium.

Instead of arguing with the reviewer, the museum stuck the quote on T-shirts, sweatshirts and tote bags. The merchandise went viral, and sales reportedly jumped by 250% in a week.

It’s a great bit of reactive marketing. No defensive corporate statement. No “we’re sorry you feel that way.” Just: yes, technically, we are a terrible aquarium.

But it also got me thinking about the slightly terrifying power of online reviews.

Google reviews have absolutely had their moment as a tool for accountability, calling out businesses accused of racism, homophobia or genuinely harmful behaviour. But what happens when that same tool is used by people who have never visited the business, frankly don’t get what it does or sells, or met the person they’re reviewing?

We’ve seen the far uglier version of this with Christine Wonsley in the US, whose professional nursing profile has reportedly been targeted with one-star reviews while she pushes for answers following the suspicious death of her son, Nolan Wells. A grieving Black mother’s search for answers has somehow become an excuse for strangers to attack her livelihood.

The museum could laugh because its review was obviously ridiculous. In other cases, review-bombing can destroy reputations, careers, and businesses without anyone having to prove a single thing.

So yes, this is a funny campaign. But it also raises a serious question for Google and other platforms: when does a review stop being consumer feedback and start becoming a weapon?

Perhaps the internet’s reviewing privileges need to go back under review.