You remember the good folks over at BIC right? We could take a few more pot shots at their social media team but we’re pretty sure they won’t be reading this today. There’s no way they’re still employed after their Women’s Month gaffes so it’s feet up in front of the telly I’m guessing.

So if you happened to read today’s first story, the wonderful tale of Celeste Barlow’s trials and tribulations at Pick ‘n Pay, you’re up to speed with the fanciful tale of some ill-fated trips to the shop for one mother.

Side note to Celeste, we all get those stupid little things called Stikeez when we shop but I’m not looking after mini humans. Perhaps there should be a tub near the door where those who don’t care can toss theirs, thereby saving moms having to shell out all that money to appease their monsters.

Just a thought PnP, use it, don’t use it, your call.

Anyway back to the matter at hand and the fail on the part of PnP’s social media team, or at least whoever handles their Twitter account. Here’s how it went down according to News24:

…it wasn’t until later, when Louise Marsland, a media journalist (yes, a journalist who writes about the media), posted that it was the funniest thing that she had read all week, that Pick n Pay’s social media team lost it…

They sent Marsland a tweet saying: “Hi there. Kindly remove your tweet as the content is highly inappropriate.”

What the actual?

Who do they think they are – the apartheid government? Censorship, dictatorship, prudishness and COMPLETELY MISSING THE POINT.

They’ve managed to take an instance of “no publicity is bad publicity” and get the whole of the twitterverse to notice that, “OK, maybe some publicity is bad publicity.” But it’s the kind of bad publicity that the brand is bringing on itself.

Let’s have a look at PnP’s Twitter account dealing with the backlash:

It’s true, they did realise they were being rather daft but it was way too late to stop the Twitter offendertrons from laying down the law. Reactions were swift, heated and completely over the top because, well, that’s what the internet does.

So how might they have better handled the situation? Back to News24:

Do you know what I would have done if I were a brand manager at Pick ‘n Pay? I would have sent Celeste Barlow a box of Stikeez with a note saying, “Hi Celeste. Hide these in your cupboard for when your Pick n Pay spend has resulted in a total that’s not divisible by three. And have this voucher on us to even things out a bit.”

I’m pretty sure she would have had something nice to say about it. Or they could have blown their own trumpets and live-tweeted the delivery. Because that’s how social media works – you take the negative stuff and find a way to put a positive spin on it.

You certainly don’t rap the knuckles of the journalists and public that you claim to serve because they said something nasty about your poor brand. And I know they apologised later, on Twitter and the phone, but brands shouldn’t have to be doing this kind of damage control.

I guess that’s the nail on the head. It isn’t like PnP punched an old lady in the face but, given the ferocity with which Twitter users will pick apart any mistake by bigger brands, perhaps there should be some kind of approval system before tweets go live.

The vultures are waiting and they don’t need much to work themselves into a tizz. You’ve been warned big business.

[source:news24]