Prisoners Hire PR Firm To Get Red Wine Served For Dinner… In Jail

Updated June 21, 2026.

At Kvíabryggja Prison in Iceland, a group of inmates wanted red wine with dinner. When the prison said no, the inmates' PR firm got involved.

Yes — really.

The Setup

Many of the Kvíabryggja inmates were former bankers and executives serving time for offences tied to Iceland's 2008 financial collapse — the country's single largest reputational event of the modern era. The wine request came through KOM, Iceland's oldest PR firm.

According to Páll Winkel, Director of the Iceland Prison Service, KOM's CEO Björgvin Guðmundsson called him directly. Per Winkel:

"There have been requests from certain prisoners that there be red wine and other alcoholic beverages made available for special occasions. Those requests were of course denied."

Winkel said the KOM CEO asked for discretion — the anonymous client prisoners didn't want press attention. Winkel's reply, sharp:

"I was not told who KOM was working for or what prisoners might be paying for their services. I was also told that the unnamed prisoners did not want to start a PR war, or an image war with the prison. But we don't have a PR person on staff and public relations is still handled by the national prison service. All our resources and time are spent on enforcing sentences. So there is no one to start a PR war with."

The PR Firm

KOM was founded in 1986 and is the oldest PR firm in Iceland. The firm's first major assignment was the Reagan–Gorbachev Reykjavik Summit. Its client roster since has included VISA Europe, Alcoa, Delta, Novo Nordisk, Flügger, and Flybe. Government work, multinational work, media briefings, discretion campaigns.

And, evidently, incarcerated former bankers.

The PR Lesson

• PR is service work — and service work follows the money. Inmates from Iceland's banking collapse retained representation because they could afford it. PR has always been the discipline of those with budget and reputational exposure. Prisoners with both qualify.
• Discretion campaigns are real. KOM didn't ask for press. It asked for none. The discipline of not ending up in the paper is one of the most undersold services a senior firm provides.
• Government PR functions don't exist where you think they do. The Iceland Prison Service had no comms officer. The director handled it himself — and won the news cycle by being direct, on the record, and very dry.

For the record: KOM PR remains, as far as is publicly known, the only PR firm in modern history retained to lobby a national prison service for table wine.