A Brand’s Second Mistake: Where Does Lost Chapstick Go From Here?
by Samantha Ettus
Chapstick, a great brand that has been built on the brands of women athletes, hit a roadblock this week with it’s objectifying ad. It began with a Reel Girl blog post identifying the offensive ad and it snowballed from there.
The good news is that Chapstick took their offensive ad down – showing that social media has made all of us powerful enough to have our voices heard. The bad news is that Chapstick’s apology makes it clear that they aren’t convinced the ad was offensive in the first place.
The reaction to the ad was compounded by Chapstick’s novice social media move – someone from Pfizer was policing the Facebook fan page to erase any negative talk about the ad, yet the same social media hawk allowed the blatantly sexist comments to live freely on the page. This was described by a blogger who wrote a post entitled “Dear Chapstick, We’re Through.”
So what might a dream apology have looked like? In this case, the “dream apology” wouldn’t have simply pacified angry consumers, it would have also been best for the brand’s strength and more on Forbes…