Another British brand tries trolling non-customers as a marketing strategy

The Sun

Remember the controversy over Protein World's "Beach Body Ready" ads last year? The ads sparked a firestorm of Twitter protest, inspired vandalism and parody ads, and was eventually banned by the ASA.

The campaign, which Adland's Dabitch described as "trolling as a social media strategy," resulted in huge amounts of earned media and — according to Marketing — £1million in direct sales revenue.

I've never been a fan of the cliché, "there's no such thing as bad publicity," but for brands that are seeking to grow a narrow-but-oppositional target market, it can work.

The Sun

Enter Gourmet Burger Kitchen, a UK chain that decided to dust off an old chestnut for meat vendors: Making fun of vegetarians.

The Sun

The reaction was as big as it was predictable:

@KirstenHenry these are more appropriate ads....mocking people that care about animals ✊🏼💦 #gourmetmurderkitchen pic.twitter.com/LcNnFOSTtf

— paul warmington (@paulwarmo) January 18, 2016

The advertiser has since made a tepid apology on Facebook, and has promised to take down "some of" the ads. But a follow up survey, published in The Drum, showed that the campaign was likely to increase sales slightly.

Which makes me wonder, are angry social media protests over campaigns like these just playing into the hands of the most cynical marketers? Do activists risk becoming one more channel for earned media?

I'd love to hear some opinions about what's happening, and what could go differently.

BBQ joint ad mocks vegetarians and mental health campaigns

This campaign for Red’s True BBQ, a carnivorous join in Leeds and Manchester, UK, is trying to be funny. I get that.

Oppositional meat-loving is well known, from the classic "Plenty of room for all God's creatures" ad for the Saskatoon steakhouse, to passive-aggressive notes on campus billboards.

But it's not vegetarians who are outraged at this one. It's mental health advocates.

From the Leeds Student Newspaper:

Responding to the outcry on social media, the restaurant has posted a blog apologising for mocking vegetarianism, stating that they are “currently liaising with media owners to update the billboard”. However, there is no apology for mocking mental illness or domestic abuse charities. 

According to Mind, one in four people in the UK will experience a mental health problem each year. The most common form of mental illness is mixed anxiety and depression, which affects about one in ten. Refuge, a charity that deals with domestic abuse, says that two women each week are killed from domestic violence. 

But these facts probably never occurred to Red’s True BBQ.

Probably not. Brands as big as McDonald's have made similar mistakes, assuming that it was OK to lampoon mental health PSA clichés to sell stuff.

It's not. At least, not anymore.

It should be noted that Red's BBQ has offered the standard non-apology — but only to "offended" vegetarians.

Making fun of people's life choices seems like fair game to me. It should be noted that Red's BBQ has offered the standard non-apology — but only to "offended" vegetarians.

Making fun of people's life choices seems like fair game to me. Mocking who they are, however, in my opinion is not.

Can PETA's naked celebrity ads get any more ridiculous?

Via PETA Latino

The answer, quite clearly, is "yes".

I'm trying to figure out how someone thought this was sexy: "Oh yeah, the broccoli floret kind of looks like green shag carpet. We can have Patricia de Leon get all 'come hither' on it! Hawt!"

Not.

UPDATE: Tania pointed out that Ms. de Leon is also missing a leg.

PETA is sexually exploiting 16-year-olds now

Via PETA

That's 16-year-old Samia Finnerty, musician and daughter of actress Kathy Najimy, posing provocatively with another dumb double-entendre.

PETA calls her their "youngest pinup" and states:

PETA normally waits until people turn 18 before asking them to star in a "provocative" campaign, but not this time. Sixteen-year-old singer-songwriter Samia Najimy Finnerty stars in our new "Vegans Go All the Way" ad. 

Classy. I also question the social marketing strategy of dissing vegetarians as being some kind of lesser vegans. Way to alienate a large proportion of your base, PETA!

Courtney Stodden does another "Go Veg" PSA nobody asked for

America's Most Unspeakably Nasty Teen Bride™, of whom I keep lying about never blogging again, seems to have really taken to vegetarianism. A couple of weeks ago, PETA apparently accepted and promoted a video she made for them with her dog.

This new one, however...



I guess she feels that the Go Veg movement is interest she can borrow as she trashes her way through the last 15 seconds of her fame.

Next time, I hope she goes back to shooting these to black and white. That tan is much less unsettling as a shade of grey.