You Better Think

As long-time readers of this column know (and you both know who you are), many is the time I have used the phrase “know your audience” when writing about dealing with customers and/or the public in general.  Think before you speak, and all that. 

I’m certainly not immune to foot-in-mouth disease.  Many has been the time that the Trophy Wife has had to point out that I’m really not as funny as I think I am. Everyone’s a critic.

Maybe I’m not that funny (great…I’m gonna dwell on that now), but I (usually) know what I can and can’t get away with in my professional encounters…not to mention my day-to-day interactions with other humans.  My last speaking gig (I’d really rather say “most recent” but hell…it was August of 2019, so I have to wonder!) was in Minnesota, and I knew going in that my typical Brooklyn-based schtick would not go over well, so I edited my presentation.  That some of the natives’ Ole and Lena jokes told to me might have been a little off-color is neither here nor there.

“Know your audience” crossed my radar again this week when I was reading about Burger King’s recent marketing faux pas over in the United Kingdom. In fact, those very words are what caught my eye…time and again…as I read one report after another about this shoot-yourself-in-the-foot fiasco.

I’ll say this much: their intention was good.  Tone deaf, perhaps…but good, nonetheless.  With the intent of calling out gender-disparity in the restaurant industry, they tweeted five words.  Five simple words.  Five stupid words.

“Women belong in the kitchen."

Ouch.

Because it’s Twitter, the potential for misunderstanding is great.  Of course, the tweet was taken out of context, as that was little more than a catchphrase from an entire ad campaign. 

As I read in Ad Age: “A full-page ad running in The New York Times shows the line in large font and follows with several lines that explain the idea behind Burger King H.E.R. (Helping Equalize Restaurants) scholarship, including the low representation of women in chef and head chef roles across the industry. On Twitter, however, the usage of the line was quickly misconstrued. Burger King U.K. tweeted out just the line ‘Women belong in the kitchen’ on Monday morning, and it was only in subsequent tweets that the intended meaning was explained.”

Had they bothered to attach an image to the tweet…perhaps that of the full-page ad that ran in The Times…they might have averted this marketing disaster.  The tweet launched that morning in the U.K.  By 12:30 PM Eastern Time in the United States, it had gotten more than 250,000 comments internationally…nearly as many as the 320,000 they had received over the previous two weeks.  Suffice to say, the majority of the comments were not complimentary.  The offending tweet got deleted, but by then the damage was already done.

Businesses need to remember that over 75% of consumers prefer to buy from companies who share their values.  Being clever only goes so far (trust me…I know).  You’ve got to be able to back that up…or be prepared to do so.  Not as damage control, but as a follow-up.  One crisis management expert wrote, “There’s a fine line between edgy and inappropriate or dangerous to your own reputation today. That line is constantly shifting, and brands need to weigh the potential cost of going too far against the benefits of more views, clicks, and shares from their marketing attempts.  In this case, I believe Burger King is going to see a negative ROI."

Your writer, a marketing expert, says, “Duh.”

In any campaign, you need to think of the next steps before you launch the first.  Plan ahead…especially in the current climate where someone is bound to be offended, no matter how innocent you and your marketing team think your strategy might be.  Include a puppy in your ad?  Not if you don’t want to hear from the cat-lovers coalition.

As always, this is just my take on this.  Have it your way.