10 epic PR fails to learn from

So PR campaigns have such a huge influence on people's perceptions of a company or brand, and there are lots of different ways for PR professionals to get their client talked about, but for these 10, this probably wasn't the right way to be the talk of the town.

Here are my top 10 PR fails to learn from:

1. Pepsi - 2017

Pepsi, did you really think your advert through? Kendall Jenner received immediate backlash after Pepsi’s new ad was released in 2017. In the advert, she leaves a photoshoot to join protesters calling for love and peace, before handing a can to police as a peace offering. The police officer then smiles and the crowd of protesters cheer.

The first criticism of the ad is that it portrays that a "privileged, white" model to as a peacemaker between civil rights activists and police. The second being that it echoes a real-life incident during a Black Lives Matter protest, where female protester Ieshia Evans tried to approach heavily armed police in riot gear in Louisiana the year before. There is no wonder that this ‘tone deaf’ ad has been criticized. Now seriously Pepsi, this would never have been a good idea.

2. Walkers - 2017

Now to be fair to Walkers, this was a good idea in terms of successful campaigning, but it was just too darn easy to hack for people to cause mischief. The WalkersWave campaign was launched on twitter and asked the social media users o respond to a tweet from the official Walkers Crisps Twitter account with a selfie, using the hashtag #WalkersWave, as part of the chance to win tickets for next weekend's Cardiff showpiece. The user's picture would then be incorporated into a personalised video, featuring Gary Lineker, automatically tweeted and captioned by Walkers. This was obviously the perfect opportunity for hackers to spoil the campaign and this resulted in their crisp-eater-in-chief Gary Lineker has been pictured clutching photos of Fred West and Harold Shipman in online videos on Twitter. Not a good idea in the end Walkers!

3. Snickers - 2012

The Snickers TV advert featuring Mr T as BA Baracus from The A-Team was pulled after it was accused of being insulting to gay men. Obviously, the phrase “You are a disgrace to the man race. It's time to run like a real man” can easily be taken in ways not meant. Gay men felt targeted by the advert in 2008 and Mars released a statement saying the advert was intended to be funny but that "humour is highly subjective".

4. Nivea - 2017

Nivea really didn’t think this through did they. The advert for its invisible deodorant range said "white is purity" across an image of a woman. It was posted on the firm's Facebook page, geographically aimed at its followers in the Middle East. Nivea accepted the post was "misleading". Many on social media complained the post was racist, but it was also widely-shared among alt-right users. Too right to be fair, they have been really naïve when releasing such a controversial statement.

5. Starbucks - 2002

This one by Starbucks was quite a while ago, but really way too thoughtless and one to definitely be pointed out. A year after 9/11, Starbucks released this poster, reading ‘Collapse into cool’ with the cups positioned the same as the twin towers had been. This was considered as an unacceptable reminder of the September 11 terrorist attacks, even if the phrase was only used for the alliteration.

6. Nikon - 2017

Nikon chose 32 professional photographers to trial their new D850 camera, however, a huge mistake was made. No women. Every single member of the panel was male. Did this mean that women were not of high enough status to use this new camera? Or that they wouldn’t be able to use it? Or that they can’t be good enough photographers? The image Nikon used to promote its new camera comes across as if it’s a boys club, or that the camera was meant for men. This was clearly extremely sexist to half the population of the world and was criticised for this reason.

7. Funeral company

This is the most ironic advert I have ever seen in my life. As posters can be put up in the tube stations, this can be a great way to advertise and promote, but this funeral service really didn’t think through their advert. The poster reading ‘come a little closer’ ironically positioned at the other side of the tracks, advertises the funeral services…need I say more of why this is so thoughtless.

8. Waitrose - 2012

Waitrose launched a twitter campaign in September 2012 with a tweet that asked shoppers to complete the sentence, "I shop at Waitrose because..." This was then hijacked by people making fun of the supermarket's perceived social reputation on Twitter. Basically, comments like ‘they didn’t want to be surrounded by poor people’. However, the marketing team has managed to reflect a personality as well by recognising the humorous elements of both their campaign and some of the responses its encouraged. Go Waitrose!

9. McDonalds - 2012

Yet another 2012 twitter campaign was hijacked but this time it was McDonalds. This was also extremely vital in terms of the brands publicity and could have easily damaged its reputation at this important time, as this was the time McDonalds was in partnership with the 2012 London Olympics. McDonalds launched the hashtag McDStories and hoped it would encourage happy customers to share their experience. Instead, it encouraged countless complaints of less-than-satisfied diners who took to twitter to vent their frustration of food poisoning experiences and and allegations of low standards of employee and animal welfare. Oops…really put your foot in it there Maccies. (I will still buy from you though, especially after a night out)!

10. Susan Boyle - 2012

Yes…you are 100% allowed to laugh at this one. I honestly think this is the most epic PR twitter fail EVER! Do you remember Susan Boyle? She was the one who surprised everyone with her amazing voice singing ‘I dreamed a dream’ from Les Miserables on Britains Got Talent back in 2009. She had been doing amazing for herself…until this happened. #susanalbumparty

Can you see it? Or shall I spell it out? There is a huge lack of grammar and with no capital letters resulted in the hashtag being read as #SusAnalBumParty rather than #SusanAlbumParty. What a hilarious mistake! This will teach Su-Bo’s PR team a very valuable English lesson.

Let me know if you know of any more epic PR fails!

Thanks for reading! Keep smiling and have a great day! Liv xxx