by Daniele
5. January 2012 15:59
Social media is often a tricky matter for brands, especially when it comes to companies producing and/or promoting alcoholic beverages; rules and guidelines are getting way stricter, as we read just recently on Marketing Magazine, September 2011: ’The European Forum for Responsible Drinking has formed a partnership with the Distilled Spirits Council of the US to devise a set of self-regulatory guidelines for advertising on social-media sites. The guidelines include restricting Facebook users aged under 18 from accessing official alcohol brand pages, and a commitment to remove inappropriate user-generated content from brand pages on Facebook with 48 hours.’
Moreover, just a few days ago, The Guardian reported: ‘Tests on counterfeit bottles seized by council trading standards officers across the UK have revealed high levels of methanol – an ingredient used to make anti-freeze and which can cause blindness – as well as dangerous industrial solvents.’
Smirnoff was one of the counterfeit brands. But that was not the only problem they had to deal with, recently; only yesterday, their Facebook Page Smirnoff GB got stormed by five minutes of panic, as one of the brand’s posts left users and fans confused and bewildered. Suddenly, everybody was having a rant: user against user, users against the brand, users against the copywriter/social media person who came up with the post, grammar against common sense and so on and so forth, in a firework that quickly got out hand.
The brand tried to fix it, but maybe some more sense of humour or a simple “sorry guys, we messed up a bit” would have helped achieve a better result.
What do you think?
Below, the point at issue:
Finally, Smirnoff GB got rid of the posts; but this morning a user felt like the joke had to last a bit longer.
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