Marketing isn’t an exact science, but if it’s true that all publicity is good publicity then even major fails can turn into positive promotions. Such was the case with the following PR failures, where mistakes, misunderstandings—or carefully orchestrated controversy, if you believe the conspiracies—resulted in positive exposure that few people could have foreseen.
Publicity is never straightforward but it’s always essential. Whether you’re a writer, an MLM consultant, or the CEO of a leading media company—if you have ever been involved with any aspect of marketing, you’ll know that it’s never easy but always essential. What you might not know, however, is that sometimes a massive flop can result in unexpectedly positive PR.
EA’s Godfather II Promotion
To generate a buzz for their Godfather II title back in 2009, Electronic Arts (EA) decided to ship some freebies to journalists across the country. But instead of opting for a few collectible editions of the game alongside some promotional posters and other simple memorabilia, they shipped brass knuckles.
In a way, EA achieved their goal as the journalists were over the moon, but only because they’d just been handed an opportunity to document EA’s mistakes, potentially generating more readers than they would get from the game’s release.
What EA didn’t realize is that brass knuckles are illegal in many states, including a number of the states they shipped them to. They soon realized their mistake and tried to make amendments by contacting the journalists and asking them to return the packages unopened, but telling a journalist not to open a mysterious package is like telling a toddler not to push a big red button.
Despite the fallout and the fact they came close to breaking several laws, EA managed to generate a lot of buzz for The Godfather II. The chaos even helped to distract potential buyers from the game’s many flaws, with more attention placed on the PR failure than the panning that critics were giving the game.
It was still a flop, but there’s a good chance it sold many more copies than it would have done without this PR disasterpiece.
Szechuan Sauce
In 2017 McDonald’s paid homage to the hugely popular animated show Rick & Morty by launching a limited edition Szechuan Sauce, which had featured in the show. Fans flocked to the fast food chain to purchase the sauce, only to discover that McDonald’s had limited stock.
Many locations didn’t have any sauce at all and the ones that did were limited to just a few tubs. This, combined with reports saying that the sauce was an experience not to be missed, created a furore that ensured McDonald’s were barely out of the news for several days. There were videos of people queuing up inside McDonald’s restaurants to pay $10 just to dip a chicken nugget into a tub of the sauce, and small tubs of it were also being sold on eBay for hundreds of dollars a piece.
Thousands of fans were disappointed by the fact they couldn’t get their hands on the sauce, and many took to social media to vent, claiming that McDonald’s had intentionally limited supply in order to orchestrate the chaos. Whether it was intentional or not, it worked—a few thousand sachets of sauce generated more exposure for the brand than millions of dollars worth of advertising could have done.
Paddy Power “Gave the Rainforest a Brazilian”
Paddy Power are a European bookmaker known for running controversial ad campaigns. In fact, they could fill this entire list themselves. They just don’t seem to be happy unless they are angering people, and while this is a very risqué strategy, it seems to be working for them.
One of the prime examples of this strategy was launched in time for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. It was dubbed, “Give the rainforest a Brazilian” and in perfect controversial PR style, all it took was a single photograph.
The picture in question was of the Amazon rainforest from above, showing acres upon acres of lush green trees that had been carefully felled to spell the words “C’mon England. PP.”
The majority of people took it for what it was—a photoshopped image clearly intended as a joke. But many thought it was real and reacted as you would expect, chastising the betting company for destroying the Amazon rainforest just to get their message across.
As the buzz from the story reached fever pitch, Paddy Power released another photograph of the rainforest, this time with the words, “We didn’t give the Amazon rainforest a Brazilian”. They even placed a descriptive banner at the bottom of the page going into detail about how the picture was photoshopped in case people still didn’t get the joke.
They claimed that the purpose of the stunt was to raise awareness for the fact that “every 90 minutes, an area the size of 22 footy pitches’ is chopped down”, but it also helped to generate huge publicity for the brand’s World Cup promotions.
