Sharing is Caring
When a marketing or PR campaign goes viral you know it’s stirred up a hornet’s nest of emotions with the public. Whether it be humourous, scandalous or emotive it resonates on such a level that millions of others collectively share a similar reaction and response.
One recent example is the reactive ASOS PR campaign which they launched on the back of the story about a young lady, Thea Lauryn Chippendale, 20, who had been insulted by a potential Tinder suitor for wearing one of their dresses. The gentleman helpfully suggested she shouldn’t wear the dress in one of her profile pics again as it ‘was doing her no favours’. How kind.
In an act of solidarity with the female, Asos used the image of her wearing the said dress as the official model for the item on their website – she looked that good in it contrary to the man’s comments.
Her story and their response went off the scale in terms of shares, comments and coverage, on and offline. Millions world wide were outraged by this guy’s rude and entitled behaviour, which for many summed up what’s wrong with the world today: judgemental, looks obsessed and complete disregard for another’s feelings.
The ‘offending’ dress and image Asos used on their website.
Add to the fact it was on the dating app that leaves many of us shiver with fear at the prospect of ever having to go near such a judgemental platform, the empowerment and ‘fingers up’ gesture by Asos in support of the lady was loudly cheered by men and women alike. Well done Asos for reacting so quickly to a fabulous positive PR opportunity.
Or was it as innocent as that?
On sharing this story will a colleague their instant reaction was that it was all a set up. A craftly orchestrated PR stunt to tap into the very emotions and reaction it generated by a company who is desperate for a positive story as profits plummet.
My thoughts to that? Hmm, honestly? So what if they did? If it was a fabricated tale, then ok the marketing and PR team aren’t so on the ball as I thought in reacting to something they’d picked up on Twitter, but they’ve still created a campaign that is very relatable, very emotive and very sharable. It is absolutely believable this could have happened to someone as thanks to previous news stories covered on wannabe daters stipulating outrageous demands and comments to potential matches.
The best marketing and PR campaigns are always the ones that feel genuine, whether they are or not. They have an authenticity that connects with the audience on a very real level, which is no mean feat given the cynical world we can live in. Now there is greater accountability and responsibility for ‘influencers’ you can see which products and services they are endorsing because they’ve been paid to do so. If the influencer and brand have a genuine connection and relevance, for many seeing the #Ad won’t make a difference to the impact of this campaign whether it is there or not. But for those partnerships that look ‘fake’ and so obviously a paid transaction that stinks of disingenuous sentiment then that will do more harm than good, and if it is shared it will be for ridicule not positive endorsement or support.