In the week where everyone was talking the beautiful game, it is no surprise that brands jumped or at least attempted to jump on the hot topic of the Euros 2016!
On social media being topical is the aim of the game, jump on the right hashtags, create engagement and you can reap the rewards! But if you make a blunder it’s a very public and embarrassing fall from grace.
Last week Iceland was feeling this more than anyone. After the Nordic country managed a 1-1 draw against Portugal in the Euros, Iceland couldn’t help but use the opportunity for some free advertising. The frozen foods store tweeted Nando’s – the spicy, famous, Portugese style peri-peri chicken – with the gloating message: ‘Unlucky lads’. Unfortunately Iceland had picked the wrong target and it wasn’t long before the restaurant chain replied: ‘We’re South African… this is awkward.’
The fail didn’t go unnoticed and Nando’s ‘sassy’ reply was applauded by many! This got us talking about our other favourite cringe worthy social media pr fails, here are a few of our favourites…
The time Heinz’s led us to QR porn…
Heinz was under fire recently, after a consumer was under the impression that they were entering a contest pushed through social media to scan QR Codes on bottles of our favourite sauces, but instead was led to Fundorado, a German porn site! The guys at Heinz had once registered the site for the competition but let the domain name expire (prematurely) once the campaign finished – eek!
BIC invented a pen for just us girls – too kind!
BIC, the ballpoint pen manufacturer aren’t afraid of a bold campaign. They launched ‘BIC Cristal for her’ last year, and a wave of sarcastic customer comments on Amazon sparked an influx quotes going viral on social media:
‘Ask your husband for some extra pocket money so you can buy one today!’
‘They dot every “i” with a little heart.’
‘Oh! I am not worthy of such a delicate, pastel-shaded lady-pen! I’m afraid you’ll give me the vote soon and all sorts of other ghastly manly things.’
Hey Tinder – you ok hun?
In August a Vanity Fair article called Tinder a big factor in the ‘dating apocalypse’. And well Tinder had a meltdown, a very public melt down. A series of tweets started coherent and ended well embarrassing…
- It’s disappointing that @VanityFair thought that the tiny number of people you found for your article represent our entire global userbase.
- You could have talked about how users build a Tinder profile that expresses who they are.
- Talk to our many users in China and North Korea who find a way to meet people on Tinder even though Facebook is banned.
…Needless to say the company responded again the next day to apologise for their ‘slight’ overreaction. Deep breaths everyone!
Our consumer PR agency specialises in connecting everyday brands with everyday people across four core sectors; Consumer PR, Food & Drink PR, Consumer Technology PR and Sport, Health & Wellbeing PR.
