As soon as Michael Phelps confirmed he was the man with the bong, the media started talking about the amount of corporate endorsements he could lose. Turns out,so far, just one company has turned its back on Phelps--Kellogg's. Now the company is facing a social media backlash and it may make other companies think twice about rejecting Phelps for his social recreational activities.
Ever since a group of Mommy Bloggers used the power of; Twitter to remove an Advertising Campaign for Motrin ,all in just one weekend of Tweets, corporate America has had to consider consumer reaction about it's decisions in ways that it never has had to before.
Kellogg's obviously doesn't know its consumers or it got some very bad research because their decision to drop Phelps is now tarnishing their brand image..
Kellogg's has now become the butt of online jokes,and calls for boycotts. For Kellogg's, who said they were dropping Phelps because the behavior was not consistent with their image, the decision to drop Phelps may be the worst branding decision the company has ever made.
Instead of winning public approval for their decision, the company is now a laughing stock. The brand image is taking a beating and the word hypocritical is now being associated with the brand.
As Cenk Uygur on Huffington Post writes,
This is a decision that would have been absolutely justified in 1955. But this is 2009. No one gives a damn. In fact, they are more likely to lose customers than gain them by making such a public display of their displeasure.
You know how many people have smoked marijuana in America? A whopping 42%. That is a huge chunk of the country Kellogg has just personally insulted because they are saying implicitly that their behavior is so wrong that they would fire them over it.
But what's worse is the even larger percentage who don't care if anyone else smokes marijuana and are turned off by anyone else who judges them for it.
The Tweets about Phelps and Kellogg's are funny,double -entendre filled and definitely not brand friendly for Kellogg's.
Over at Facebook there are 42 pages calling for a Kellogg's boycott . Meanwhile, at Kellogg's customer hotline they seem to be getting more calls about their Phelps decision than questions about the peanut butter salmonella outbreak.
Then, of course,there's Seth Meyer's brand bashing Skit On SNL that is now on YouTube hit. Can you say Snap, Crackle, Pot?
Update: NBC is reporting the owner of the bong in the Phelp's photo had put it on eBay hoping to get $100,000. Instead, he's been arrested.
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