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Computer scientist and author Jaron Lanier has turned his back on the “information wants to free” meme to which he once subscribed, and he thinks advertising as a business model for media is doomed. It’s not just that Craigslist and other Internet businesses have snatched ads away from traditional media, he reckons; it’s that in this digital era, when Google and Facebook increasingly own most of the inventory, not to mention the ad servers and distribution channels, relying on advertising to prop up your media company just doesn’t make sense. youLanier, the guy credited with coming up with the term “virtual reality,” outlines this thesis in his new book “Who Owns the Future?” which examines the effects network technologies have had on our economy. In an interview with Nieman Journalism Lab, Lanier builds on that case, stating flatly that advertising isn’t a viable business plan for media businesses in the long term. He tells the publication...
Sometimes you come across a PR fail that is so big, it’s hard to believe. Marketers at Mountain Dew (owned by PepsiCo) hit the bottom of the barrel when it comes to racism and disrespect to abused women everywhere with a new video spot. The firestorm for Mountain Dew's marketing fail is just getting started.
... What is it going to take to realize there's a better way to do things? It strikes me as odd that we've taken the old style of mass marketing, which itself has been competing for attention and eyeballs for years, and simply moved it over to digital marketing - and then, to make matters worse, have transferred that to social media. If we weren't satisfied with the results we were seeing in the primary model, what makes us think that repeating it elsewhere would solve our problems?...
JWT India created a series of disturbing ads for the FordFigo, one of which shows former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi flashing a peace sign from the front seat of a car that has three curvaceous women tied up and gagged in the trunk. Ford and JWT have both issued an apology. Ford did not approve the ads; the agency was just publishing some speculative renderings to show off its creative chops. JWT India is Ford's agency for the Figo in that country....
For starters, it’s trying way too hard to have it every which way, and trots out too much corporate blather and jibber-jabber. All that lawyer-approved disingenuousness shuts my circuits down. Most people watching would find it interesting to know that Coca-Cola owns over 600 brands, including teas, waters, sports drinks, health drinks, and the sweetener Truvia. I love the design of the tiny cans, and the big graphic calorie counts on the front labels of the sugared drinks. All good information. But you can’t have it both ways. Exactly how deeply concerned iscitizen Coca-Cola about "playing an important role" in addressing obesity, when clearly it is also using this very same message to lobby voraciously on behalf of high-fructose-syrupy, supersized drinks (which Mayor Bloomberg of New York City is threatening to kill) and against higher soda taxes? This will take “continued effort from all of us,” says the announcer, evenly. But speak for yourself, lady. It’s a bit presumptuous to ask your customers to exert any effort in your direction. The root causes of obesity are so complicated, with so many possible angles (never mind Coke’s role in that epidemic)...
A note to readers: While most of the PR failures we write about are unfortunate, they are also amusing (on some level). This one, however, cannot be categorized as anything but horrifically insensitive, bordering on cruel. Relatives of the victims of last summer’s movie theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado recently received invitations from Cinemark USA to attend the reopening of the same theater at which their loved ones lost their lives. The invitations, which were sent just after the holidays, urged recipients to “reserve [their] tickets” for an evening of remembrance and a movie to follow. In response, family members sent a strongly-worded letter to Cinemark in which they expressed anger and outrage at the company’s lack of compassion, calling the invitation “disgusting”. They also noted that Cinemark representatives never reached out to offer their condolences; the company even rebuffed requests to meet with family members without lawyers present. The letter admonishes the reopening celebration as a “thinly veiled publicity ploy” and calls for a boycott of the theater....
Fail fast” has become part of the startup vernacular, thanks to Lean Startup and Lean Startup Machine philosophy, pivoting around “pivoting.” In truth, this shouldn’t be a shock to sluggish corporations, who have long practiced the dark arts of direct marketing or at the very minimum, “Test, learn, evolve.” How is it startups can take risks, pivot, fail, and still find success? Why can’t brands do the same? Where’s the disconnect?...
Cheerios recently tried to make the most of social media as a PR tool by doing what everyone else was already doing: designing Facebook apps to encourage its hundreds of thousands of fans to interact with the brand. Unfortunately, that plan blew up in the face of parent company General Mills. Cheerios attempted to gain the invisible, invaluable thing we call “brand loyalty” by presenting fans with an app that allowed them to write about “what Cheerios means to me” in the cereal’s trademark font. But the brand’s social team quickly discovered that many Facebook users don’t approve of General Mills’s relationship with genetically modified foods—or its political advocacy on the subject. The activists’ quick storming of the forum forced Cheerios to kill the app after just one day. Click through for the backstory.... [How to fail at social media, damage your brand and create bad PR]
During a major crisis like Hurricane Sandy, it's best for PR reps to keep quiet if they represent a company selling something frivolous like V-neck T-shirts. Unfortunately, not everyone has that kind of good sense. There's been a small treasure of social media fails since the storm hit last night. Most notably, American Apparel are taking serious criticism for sending out an advisory last night for a 26 hour storm sale special: 20 percent off in all states affected by Sandy. That means sales in Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland. But American Apparel isn't the only company taking criticism for capitalizing on Sandy in name of capitalism. The Gap, the chino-peddling bastion of innocence, got caught up in the storm and tweeted this... [Let's be clear here. These are marketing muckups. PR usually comes in after to apologize and try to clean up the reputation mess! ~ Jeff]
Joe Maturo is a few fries short of a Happy Meal. Well, perhaps that is not the best fast food metaphor but the East Haven, CT Mayor delivered a whopper of a bad interview the other day. While being questioned by WPIX-TV about the arrest of four police officers who were charged with unlawfully targeting Latinos in town for searches and abuse -- the mayor was asked what he was doing for the Latino community. Kind of a broad open question. The Mayor opened his mouth and stuck his foot in it by saying "I might have tacos when I go home." Yeah, that will help....
Ryanair CEO and his PR putzes have come up their latest “brilliant” PR stunt – charging you extra for the privilege of viewing porn on your PC. You know you’re having another bad day in PR when your CEO gets headlines like Ryanair chief Michael O’Leary: ‘Passengers to Greece can pay in mountain goats’. Unless you work for Ryanair, where PR stunts like this are only an excuse to come up with something even more outrageous tomorrow. Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary and his PR putzes have come up their latest “brilliant” PR coup. Yes, the airline that wants to make you pay for going to the potty. Now, it hopes to add value to your cheap air ticket by charging you extra for the privilege of viewing porn on your PC or smartphone inflight....
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Earlier this week, I posted about the Facebook meltdown and trials and tribulations of Amy’s Baking Company Bakery Boutique & Bistro in Scottsdale. Arizona (Epic Facebook meltdown, PR fail or publicity ploy?). This un-reality show couldn’t get much stranger. It has more twists, turns and intrigue than a Shakespearean tragedy. Or maybe the Keystone Cops would be more accurate? The bistro was featured in a raucous season finale episode on Kitchen Nightmares featuring explosive celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay. It was an entertaining and highly-charged reality TV episode complete with drama, screaming, yelling, heroes and villains....
Ford isn't the only major company that has had to answer for a controversial ad it never wanted to go public. A series of Pepsi ads in Dusseldorf showed graphic images of a personified calorie committing suicide in various violent ways. The World Wildlife Foundation had to apologize when DDB Brazil created ads in which dozens of planes were shown flying at the World Trade Towers with the text, "The tsunami killed 100 times more people than 9/11." WWF said it never approved the ads even though they were submitted to various ad award ceremonies. Click here to see when big brands had to answer for huge ad fails ...
After disturbing—not to mention unsanctioned—mockup ads appeared online, the PR pros in Ford’s Asia Pacific division snapped into action on a Saturday morning. Are you having a rough Monday?
At least you weren’t handling a fast-moving PR crisis all weekend.
That was the case for Ford Motor Co.'s public relations team as it crafted a response to a disturbing mockup print ad for its Figo model that staffers at an unaffiliated agency had posted to the Internet....
Here is the back story: DKNY approached Brandon Stanton, a New York photographer, with a proposal to use 300 of his slice-of-life pictures in their store windows around the world. They offered him $15,000 for the rights. Stanton turned them down thinking DKNY was under-pricing his goods. Some time later Stanton stumbled across a photo of a window display of a DKNY store in Thailand displaying many of his images which he says were used "without (his) knowledge , and without compensation."...
...While all these have been discussed, in the recent Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting tragedy, Kmart still did not learn a lesson. On the pretext of sending out condolences, they tagged #Fab15Toys, which referred to a toy-focused "Twitter party" they held previously....
Yes, you end up getting attention. But no, I don't think people will be spurred to buy your product. Stop hashjacking (hijacking popular hashtags) to promote your products. Though it is inevitable to start marketing online, basic etiquette is still greatly appreciated....
Previously a darling of the social media scene, retailer Woolworths had its fair share of digital travails this year, from Halaal hot cross buns, to accusations of ripping off Frankie’s Olde Soft Drink Company, to calls for boycotts over perceived racist job adverts. But it was not alone. Around the world companies – in fact, very often retailers as well – had online conversations turn nasty. In Woolworth’s case, things came to a head in September with calls for the stores to be boycotted after a so-called whistle-blower accused the company of being racist based on the content of its job ads. Woolworths replied that it, like all South African companies over a certain size, was legally obliged to comply with the country’s Employment Equity Act. But by then the storm in the teacup had spiralled out of control, and Woolworths eventually was forced to close its Facebook page to control the barrage of “hate speech” and “vitriol” people were spewing forth....
Last week (with the help of our friends at Muck Rack) we asked journalists to send us the worst pitches they’ve received from PR teams. After a short period of consideration, we’ve decided to award our highly coveted prize to this particularly un-amusing pitch, run by a certain video game maker way back in October. The purpose of the stunt was to promote a still-in-development title on Greenlight, a crowdsourcing system run by the digital gaming community Steam to determine which games would be featured in the company store. The pitch involved a particularly heavy-handed form of peer pressure qualified by a nasty ultimatum: vote for our game or the kitty cat gets it.... [This PR fail was totally predictable ~ Jeff]
Social media is still in its infancy as a marketing tool and we're all still learning. Here are 5 social media publishing lessons some brands learned this year. ...as you’d expect, many brands aren’t yet ready to take the stabilizers off yet. In 2012, there were some great examples of how to use social networks and social media publishing processes to promote products, content, and services. But companies can also learn how to do it right from those who did it (very) wrong.... [Whoa! Lots of learning here ~ Jeff]
Crises in the Air Transport industry come in many shapes and forms but they usually have three things in common: 1) no prior notice or warning signs, 2) the need to inform large numbers of people in a very short time and 3) a large number of (increasingly digital) angry/distressed people.
However, regardless of whether the crisis is something the airline did to itself , an uncontrollable natural phenomenon or a strike, there is always a need to reach large numbers of people as quickly as possible, providing information, answering their questions and avoiding the spread of false rumors....
The pizza chain became a lightning rod for criticism after it insulted an Asian-American woman, and the incident provides crisis lessons for all PR pros.
Just like NetFlix, Virgin America is alienating its customers--but with some deft moves, it could win them back... Being hip is all very nice. But being reliable, functional and at least appearing to care about your customers matters a whole lot more. That's the lesson Reed Hastings has learned at NetFlix and the lesson that Virgin America is still learning. With the cute tag line "We're shaping up our back end" Virgin America may have thought it had prepared their customers for a bumpy ride, when it changed over to the Sabre reservation system. But everything that could go wrong did go wrong - including Virgin's catastrophically blasé response to their customers' outrage....
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Tthis is a very provocative discussion about how advertising is dead. Simply dead in the water. And Lanier is most definitely right. Recommended reading for advertising, marketing and PR people.