Wednesday, April 14  

Nice piece of advertising/PR work

Nice piece of work

A clothing company here in sunny Australia called Westco recently directed it's staff to wear t-shirts with the phrase "Stop pretending you don't want me" across the front whilst working.

After a while a staff member refused to wear the shirt on the grounds that the shirts were encouraging sexual comment. She was sent home.

Then came the wrath

Then the goodies jumped on the bandwagon with much enthusiasm and before you could say "Effective PR stunt" the whole thing had become front page news across the country. And many people, like me, who had never heard of a clothing company called Westco suddenly had.

Now recognition isn't everything. But as I wrote somewhere yesterday, it's a start.

The question is this: was this a publicity stunt? Or was it a misreading of the sensitivity of the market by Westco?

I don't think the answer is important. Westco got more free publicity in a couple of days than they would otherwise have had in 5 years.

Controversy works

Controversy works. But controversy can bite you on the behind. Be careful.

Hmmmmmm. A million dollars worth of free publicity vs a possible consumer backlash?

Choose wisely oh marketing guru.

Have a good night.

Brendon