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Somerset’s Gritter Name Game

PR Campaign

Monday 19th January, 2026

Somerset Council invited local schoolchildren to name two new gritters, resulting in “Gritney Spears” and “Basil Salty”. The playful names will appear on the vehicles, turning a routine winter service into a small, highly shareable local story while encouraging children to think about road safety.

Why it worked: It piggybacked winter weather news with a hyper-local, punny naming contest that produced visual assets (branded trucks) and kid quotes.

The lesson: Consider running a quick public naming vote that yields a photogenic, branded object and a school or community winner to localize coverage.

Somerset Council

1 Source:

Coverage over time

How this story spread across the media

Publication	Headline	Date
bbc.com	Somerset's gritters nicknamed 'Gritney Spears' and 'Basil Salty'	Monday 19th January, 2026

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