Attempts by the RBS public relations machine to deflect criticism from CEO Stephen Hester by announcing that the bank's chairman Sir Philip Hampton won't be accepting his bonus of around £1.4m seemed to have been sunk by fresh news of Hester's salary add ons for 2012. 

Sky news has uncovered an incentive scheme for the embattled chief executive that for this coming year would be worth around £3.3million, dwarfing this year's £900k plus, and is sure to keep the bankers bonuses story running. The 12 million share offer is sure to spark further controversy when it's announced next month just ahead of the bank's full year results and will be a further embarrassment for David Cameron.

The media team at RBS had two options for fire fighting this negative coverage. Either persuade people that the bonus is fair and deserved. Or by changing their own corporate behaviour to more closely match people's perceptions eg by persuading him to give it back.

At first the in house communications team seem to have focused their efforts on the former approach, by issuing robust statements explaining why the bonus is deserved. But with pretty much every stakeholder ranged against them, the public, politicians and the media, they've decided to change tack. By announcing that the chairman won't be taking his bonus they will have hoped to deflect attention away from their entrenched CEO in an attempt to show that they are responsive to public opinion around their remuneration policies.

Will the media be fooled? Unlikely, this type of moving the story on tactic will be easily seen through. Even without news of this year's bonus leaking this story still had a long way to run. Now with these latest revelations now the pressure is only going to intensify.