Woolworths Remove ANZAC Day Campaign after Social Media Backlash
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| twitter.com |
It can be difficult to find ways to keep up with advertising trends in the internet age, just ask Woolworths (the Australian grocery chain, rather than the British retail one). They’re currently enjoying more publicity than
they’ve had in quite some time, although ‘enjoying’ might not be the right
word, as this is the kind of attention that really puts the adage ‘any
publicity is good publicity’ to the test. ANZAC day is a huge deal in Australia
and New Zealand, just as Remembrance Day is in the UK and Veteran's Day is in the US. As such, numerous
companies roll out ad campaigns each year to use the commemorative day to draw
attention to themselves (in an ostensibly respectful way).
#freshinourmemories pic.twitter.com/bZ3SueR1VF
— The Murderhorn. (@d_wolff) April 14, 2015
British readers might recall the Sainsbury’s Remembrance Day
ad campaign which was trotted out at the end of the year, it was praised by
some for its high production value, but derided by many others for basically
using the First World War to sell groceries. Woolworths’ is far easier to criticise, for many more reasons than just corporate cynicism.
Drawing from their current slogan, ‘The Fresh Food People’, the store chain
launched a Twitter campaign under the #Freshinourmemories hashtag which
encouraged users to upload images of the WWI ANZAC campaign and/or veterans
into their image generator. They would come out the other side with ‘ANZAC 1915
– Lest We Forget’ daubed across them. Big mistake.
It seems @Woolworths jumped the shark #FreshInOurMemories pic.twitter.com/pBO9dJ5o11
— Gareth Williams (@notGareth) April 14, 2015
You would think that even when a user-generated-content
campaign is as easy to abuse as this one, the subject matter would keep people
from doing anything too tasteless. You should never underestimate the
tastelessness of trolls. Almost from the get-go, searching the hashtag resulted
in a slew of deliberately irrelevant, often fairly unpleasant images cropping
up. Elsewhere, particularly on their Facebook page, many users decided to take
Woolworths to task about their use of wartime imagery in a marketing campaign,
despite their claims that it was just about raising awareness. Difficult to accept, considering that when photos come out of the generator, they also get pasted with the company logo.
.@woolworths #ANZAC campaign hijacked by internet memes http://t.co/FK4OiNJd04 via @smh #freshinourmemories pic.twitter.com/xQ6FTQ7odc
— Doc (@Doclach) April 14, 2015
Suffice to say, they’ve taken it all down now and scurried
away, tail twixt legs. Unfortunately you can’t discontinue hashtags and the
Twitter community have continued picking at the ill-fated campaign’s rotting
carcass in all the usual ways. There’s even an angry Hitler re-edit, because of
course there is (watch below, but beware the swears).
Callum Davies
Callum is a film school graduate who is now making a name for himself as a journalist and content writer. His vices include flat whites and 90s hip-hop. Follow him @CallumAtSMF
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Woolworths Remove ANZAC Day Campaign after Social Media Backlash
Reviewed by Unknown
on
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Rating:
Reviewed by Unknown
on
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Rating:
Unknown
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