Marketing tragedy: When ads become apologies
“Communication experts” come up with ideas of promoting corporate products while referring to highly controversial or tragic events. At the time, it seems like a good idea until there is public backlash. Then the experts backtrack and create a story that can somewhat explain their actions. In most cases, the average reader knows that the backlash caused the apology. Corporate stakeholders would not like this scenario. Let’s take a look at two specific examples:
- Los Angeles Lakers tweeted a picture of Kobe Bryant with the hashtag #NeverForget. Upon overwhelming public objection, they apologized and mentioned that the link to 9/11 was the commemorative patch on his jersey. If the link was the patch, why did they not tweet the picture of just the patch?
- Another corporation, Kenneth Cole, tweeted “‘Boots on the ground’ or not, let’s not forget about sandals, pumps and loafers. #Footwear.” This tweet was related to the possible U.S. attack on Syria. When there was public outrage, Kenneth Cole apologized, which the CEO later denied and then pointed to the increase of sales as a result of the tweet.
We need to decide is profit everything or do we value lives lost?