PR fails and how to avoid them

Just as a good PR campaign can make a company, bad press can break it, leaving firms not only out of pocket financially but sometimes struggling to recover their reputation. Knowing how to get the right message out there and making sure that your business is known for all the right reasons is a crucial part of avoiding controversy in the public eye. 

Here are some of the ways PR can fail (with real life examples) and how you can avoid them in your business. 

All content is public

PR fails often happen when businesses say or do something they hadn’t intended to get press coverage for. Any message you put out in social media, emails and even staff newsletters can find its way into the headlines.

Make sure that all your messaging is consistent and reflective of your brand. It can take seconds to put a message out, but it can haunt you for a very long time afterwards if it is badly received.

Context is key

Something that many businesses have unfortunately fallen foul of is not considering the wider context of their messaging.

A prime example is in 2022 when leading energy supplier Ovo sent out a blog post to its customers containing ten ‘useful’ tips on how to save on heating bills. At the time energy prices for UK customers were rocketing and due to reach £700 by April 2022. Millions of households had relied on food banks during the pandemic with many facing job insecurity and redundancies. Therefore, the email suggesting customers should cuddle their pets, do star jumps and open curtains to allow the sun to warm their home was for many an insensitive kick in the teeth and failed to take into consideration the personal circumstances of those receiving the email.

When sending out messages think about the timing of your announcement. Look at what else is happening in the area and whether that could affect how your content is received. 

Make sure any message talks to your core audience

Sometimes messaging can get lost when businesses don’t think about their ultimate aim. All media coverage should be designed for a specific purpose. If that aim is lost, then the message can get lost too.

In 2019 Peloton launched its Christmas advert where a man gifts his wife a Peloton bike to document her fitness journey. I am sure that Peloton’s marketing team had been trying to highlight how Peloton exercise bikes could be a great gift idea.

However, the campaign failed to speak to Peloton’s core audience, females, costing the company $1 billion in stock value and a mountain of bad press. 

The advert was regarded as sexist and body-shaming as a burnt-out woman tried to fit in Peloton sessions for an entire year, all to showcase her journey to her husband.

Think about your target market and how any messaging might appear to them. What are their struggles, what resonates with them? It is never a good idea to alienate the whole of your target market by getting your message wrong.

How far can you push boundaries?

Many brands like to use sarcasm and comedy to push boundaries and create shock to gain attention. However, there is a thin line between viral humour and offence.

Well intended messages can easily get lost if you push the boundaries too far and get known for all the wrong reasons.

On International Women’s Day in 2021 Burger King wanted to raise awareness of the shortage of female chefs in the industry. The aim being to recruit more female chefs and promote their new culinary programme to support women into the industry. 

Burger King sent out a tweet boldly stating that “Women belong in the kitchen”. The aim may have been to shock to ignite debate, but the message only ignited anger and the campaign was flooded with criticism. The real message was then lost in a barrage of bad press.

Can you substantiate claims?

It is tempting to sometimes elevate your product’s capabilities or elaborate a little too much on claims to make your story seem stronger. However, over exaggerated claims can see you hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons and damage your reputation.

In 2013 Kellogg agreed to pay $4 million for false advertising claims it made about Frosted Mini-Wheats. The cereal brand claimed the cereal could improve a child’s focus by nearly 20%.

It followed a similar lawsuit settled in 2011 where the Federal Trade Commission ordered Kellogg to halt all mention that the cereal improved a child’s immunity calling claims ‘dubious’. Kellogg agreed to pay $2.5 million to affected consumers and donated $2.5 million of products to charity.

Making unsubstantiated claims damages any trust built with consumers and can be hard to earn back.

Journalists also see through elevated pitches and will soon become wary of businesses that over exaggerate their story.

Lessons learnt

When it comes to public relations always allow your marketing campaigns to be carefully analysed by several eyes before sharing it with your audience. Overlooked errors can be costly so make sure you check content doesn’t fall into any of our five PR fail scenarios. 

Once out there messaging can be hard to change so prevention is always the best solution. Your reputation is what sells so keep track and measure your brand reputation across different channels so that you can nurture and continue to support appropriate key messaging which resonates with your audience.

CIPR member Cheryl Morris is the owner of award-winning Staffordshire based PR and copywriting service Creative Word PR.