UK: Kellogg’s endorses dangerous railway stunt on Facebook
Posted: 02 Feb 2012, 20:12
Kellogg’s endorses dangerous railway stunt on Facebook days after girl’s death
The Wall by @gordonmacmillan, posted on 2 February, 2012 at 1:11 pm
Days after fresh details emerged about the deaths of two teenage girls on a rail crossing, and the death of another girl was reported, Kellogg’s Krave cereal has endorsed dangerous railway stunts on its Facebook page.
The post showed a link to a YouTube video where a man appears to be standing on a railway track facing an on coming train.
The Kellogg’s team posted the video along with the text “How cool is this! Krave would definitely receive chocolate with a stunt like this!â€.
The post was then removed possibly after it was realised that it could cause a great deal of offence to the parents and relatives who are grieving over the tragic deaths.
It probably seemed like a very funny link, and in isolation the video is amusing (it is a spoof and the man is not on a rail line at all, but on first glance that is not what it appears to be).
It is exactly the kind of careless piece of posting that could cause major damage to Kellogg’s and damage to its social reputation. It could easily ruin all the effort involved in building up those 180,000 fans.
For a family brand that kind of content is an absolutely no no and that should be obvious to anyone. Clearly someone saw that and removed the posting, but not before thousands had seen it and as the person who passed it on to me said:
“just days after another tragic rail accident with two girls they post this endorsing railway stunts on facebook! WTFâ€.
It only takes one tweet or one post on Facebook and it underscores the need for brands to ensure they have content guidelines drawn up for their teams and agencies who are involved in posting content to make sure they avoid obvious social media fails like this one.
Kellogg's response:
Kellogg's UK @KelloggsUK
@GordonMacMillan We didn’t mean to cause offense and we’ve removed the video. It was a mistake - we're now looking into how this happened
The Wall by @gordonmacmillan, posted on 2 February, 2012 at 1:11 pm
Days after fresh details emerged about the deaths of two teenage girls on a rail crossing, and the death of another girl was reported, Kellogg’s Krave cereal has endorsed dangerous railway stunts on its Facebook page.
The post showed a link to a YouTube video where a man appears to be standing on a railway track facing an on coming train.
The Kellogg’s team posted the video along with the text “How cool is this! Krave would definitely receive chocolate with a stunt like this!â€.
The post was then removed possibly after it was realised that it could cause a great deal of offence to the parents and relatives who are grieving over the tragic deaths.
It probably seemed like a very funny link, and in isolation the video is amusing (it is a spoof and the man is not on a rail line at all, but on first glance that is not what it appears to be).
It is exactly the kind of careless piece of posting that could cause major damage to Kellogg’s and damage to its social reputation. It could easily ruin all the effort involved in building up those 180,000 fans.
For a family brand that kind of content is an absolutely no no and that should be obvious to anyone. Clearly someone saw that and removed the posting, but not before thousands had seen it and as the person who passed it on to me said:
“just days after another tragic rail accident with two girls they post this endorsing railway stunts on facebook! WTFâ€.
It only takes one tweet or one post on Facebook and it underscores the need for brands to ensure they have content guidelines drawn up for their teams and agencies who are involved in posting content to make sure they avoid obvious social media fails like this one.
Kellogg's response:
Kellogg's UK @KelloggsUK
@GordonMacMillan We didn’t mean to cause offense and we’ve removed the video. It was a mistake - we're now looking into how this happened