Hey haters, hate this.
May 2, 2017
By Gonzalo López Martí – Creative director, etc / LMMiami.com
- Sooner or later, your brand/company/product/service will fall victim of a social media lynching.
- It’s happened to Pepsi, United Airlines and Shea Moisture, among others.
- Deservedly or not.
- You can run but you can’t hide from the pitchforks.
- The mobs of social media trolls have tasted blood and they want more.
- Are you ready for your turn?
- Haters will hate.
- It will happen to all of us eventually.
- Andy Warhol famously predicted that in the future we were all gonna be famous for 15 minutes.
- He forgot to elaborate on his prophecy: a big part of being famous is being hated.
- The problem in the marketing & advertising industry is that, unlike showbiz buccaneers who relish and know how to handle the attention, even when it is negative, corporate types abhor bad press and “scandals”.
- Showbiz types know, intuitively and empirically, that a good public scandal is a terrible thing to waste.
- It’s earned media.
- It’s an opportunity.
- There’s money to be made from scandal.
- If PT Barnum were alive, he’d relish the potential of a good scandal.
- Well, PT Barnum’s reincarnation is in fact alive and he occupies the White House.
- Problem is, the average corporate type working for, say, a CPG marketing department is the polar opposite of PT Barnum or the POTUS.
- Corporate types can’t stomach the turbulence and lack the reflexes to navigate it.
- Even when they do have the skills to maneuver in the storm, they tend to receive a pink slip before they can do anything about it.
- If you are a CMO or creative director in the midst of a public snafu over a campaign you personally greenlighted, please be aware that you are absolutely alone.
- Your employer will throw you under the bus.
- Your superiors need a scapegoat.
- The media wants a culprit.
- The social media haters want a head in a basket.
- The people who report to you want your job and your salary.
- Your peers and colleagues want less competition.
- It’s up or out in corporate ‘murica, as you well know by now.
- It’s a dog eat dog world (pardon the cliché).
- If you are a CMO or creative director in the midst of a public snafu over a campaign you personally greenlighted, do everything you can to deflect the hate, cover your tracks, erase your fingerprints and dilute your responsibility.
- Spread the guilt.
- Point fingers.
- Take the Fifth.
- Hide under a rock.
- Check into rehab.
- Still, it is extremely hard to walk out of these shxxstorms unscathed and/or gainfully employed.
- Don’t shoot me, I’m just the messenger.
- To be continued next week.