Negative publicity: Mistake or By Design?
Nike unveiled their Black and Tan trainers in Ireland in celebration of St. Patrick’s Day. In the United States, the Black and Tan is a popular drink, but in Ireland it was the name of a right-wing terrorist group in the early 1920’s that the Royal Irish Constabulary used to try to put down the revolution.
The Black and Tans committed many atrocities against the Irish people, so naming a new shoe after them so many believe that wasn’t a smart move. In this Future of Engagement episode, host Murray Newlands looks at how social media responded to the mishap:
While Murray mentions on the video that Nike should have done their homework, I have to wonder if this wasn’t a calculated move on their part to generate what Murray quotes some referring to as “A Media Circus”.
Prominently on the first page of Google – at least today – for the phrase “Black and Tan” are a Wikipedia entry and the History of the Irish Black and Tans on HistoryLearningSite.co.uk which makes it hard to believe Nike was not aware.
This is especially true given that Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream already created controversy doing the same thing and Nike having a history of offensive ads including a “truly horrible” anti-Christian Nike ad and the Tiger Woods Scandal Nike Ad.
While most brands would avoid negative coverage, there is an old advertising adage that says:
“There is no such thing as bad publicity.”
That is often true because there is a ton of visibility to be gained from it and most of the time the brand will stick in people’s memories much longer than the controversy.
I just hope people realize that what a brand does reflects on their principles.
Highlights
- Lots of coverage was on Facebook since there were a lot of pictures
- 26% of social media coverage was negative
- Brands can learn to do their homework before they launch brands in other countries
Graphs courtesy of Alerti social media monitoring and management
Sign up for a free 3 month Alerti trial using the code alertivideo.
What do YOU think about what Nike did?
Would your brand run a campaign that would
generate negative buzz on purpose?Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Steve
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For most people (even if not being Irish) Black and Tan still have got a negative flavour because of the ongoing debate about (the exaggerated) dangers of tanning too much and becoming black. I suppose nobody has been able to miss all the fuss made around the “tanning mom” and her blackened appearance.
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Surely this is a mistake. The idea of a corporation marketing a product to offend a segment of the population flies in the face of how corporations function -without emotion. I would say that a market study would have found the true history of the “Black and Tans”, but the marketability of alcohol probably outweighed the unmarketability of an offensive name to a small segment of the global population.
The saddest part of this debate is that I agree that these shoes will probably sell… perhaps Nike could send an apology to Ireland?
This reminds me of the Psych episode where they were Black and Tan the modeling team, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExYF3Dzzdak you have to watch this video clip, it is hilarious. “I can’t believe you just made that assumption”
Now very soon because of this controversy, everyone will start talking about this new model and ultimately this will be the hit. Nike has a neck to neck competition with Adidas & reebok, so the launch has to be very impressive, They done this intentionally, such a big brand, very good advertising and marketing agencies would be handling the brand, they can’t commit such a mistake.
There is a huge creative department in every advertising agencies, before making any new advertisement Marketing research group research everything related to the product and it is not a 1 day job and Nike is such a big brand. So no way it was a mistake, now just check the sale of these shoes will touch the sky because People want to wear the brands which is much talked about.
Positive or negative publicity, this will sell. Most likely, the people who’ll buy this pair of shoes don’t know about the terrorist group, therefore won’t associate it with atrocity and violence nor glorify them. And yes, Nike knows what it’s doing.
I think we must respect what the “Nike Management” have done their publicity in this Nike thingy. I know in everything they do they’ve been doing it legally and fair to anybody else. They’re fame won’t be sacrifice because of this.
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I can’t help thinking that its tangential connection to a popular alcoholic beverage or an unpopular terrorist cell would have ‘very’ little effect on my motivation when it came to buying a pair of shoes.
As a general principle I agree that there is no such thing as bad publicity, however common sense should apply. This marketing ploy of Nike’s is obviously offensive to those people who suffered at the hands of the Black and Tans. You don’t see other companies naming their products the Nazi’s now, do you?
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I think it’s something interpretable. I’m sure it doesn’t have any connection with that, but it sure can turn out as negative publicity. But, Nike can’t fall down, they’re too high and too good.
I can’t help thinking that if it was on purpose, they would have chosen something a bit less contentious. I can’t imagine bringing this up in a marketing meeting and getting the OK for it.
I can see why people are getting upset but seriously, it’s the name of a pair of trainers. I actually think they look quite nice and I’m from Ireland and I haven’t taken any offense, it might be that I’m too young, I don’t know. I think Nike thought that it wouldn’t harm anyone, maybe a bit juvenile?
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I don’t think Nike would be stupid enough to make this mistake, surely a quick Google search for the prospected name wouldn’t of been too much hassle.
In my opinion, this was certainly a genius piece of marketing by the Nike team, with a name that wont bother the Irish people, with it being such a long time ago, but just enough controversy to cause an uproar within the online community.
I think they already knew it, my mind doesn’t accept that they have made some mistake. It can be more concerning may be for Irish people but Black and Tans trademark will not affect Americans i think.
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You can be sure it has been done on purpose, some marketing genius guru stuff probably. Well, at the end why care for people suffering if human beings are just walking wallets? At the end Nike is a corporation. Did they quit producing in Third World Countries?
They were the ones having children produce football balls if I remember well right? Everything can be done for money these times. I just hope it becomes a boomerang for them. At least in Ireland.
Never run a campaign that generates negative buzz on purpose. Agree with Sam that they should have done some research. Not a good campaign by Nike.
I can see why people are getting upset but seriously, it’s the name of a pair of trainers. I actually think they look quite nice and I’m from Ireland and I haven’t taken any offense, it might be that I’m too young, I don’t know. I think Nike thought that it wouldn’t harm anyone, maybe a bit juvenile?
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I think Nike did do their homework and may have thought to themselves that the controversy of the name of the trainers would indeed cause some ruffled feathers and get the product talked about even more.
After all that’s what we’re doing now 😉
In my opinion even its a negatively publicity, it’s still a publicity. It makes a lot of people be informed! Surely though, business wanted to have good publicity to attract more clients.
I think it is definitely on purpose… I mean, isn’t that the most important thing about advertising in foreign countries? They have the resources to do all the necessary research, so they must have known about the connotations.
Not a good move for Nike. They should of done their research and changed the name of the shoe in Ireland. This little mistake will cost them millions in sales and even more in reputation. Shame Nike…shame…
Considering how much money Nike pours into R&D and its employees, its a bit absurd how they’d mess this one up. Chances are they’ve lost a customer somewhere that are affected by the Black and Tan name.
I’m not Irish, but putting myself in the shoes of those Irish victims, I find this offensive. If a Los Angeles car accident lawyer can say that, it should mean something.
I think that Nike has too much experience to make this kind of error. It’s on purpose.
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I think this was intentional to create some buzz. It seems to be working as I have seen this all over Twitter and this is the third blog post i have read today about it.
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I could believe it was a mistake if you were talking about some small family operated business who simply does not have the resources to do the research.
But we’re talking about a huge international business here. No way it was a mistake… absolutely no way.
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