Ford’s Social Media
Crisis
Last week I was watching the news and saw a story about some
Ford ads that had gone viral. While at first glance the ads sort of made me
chuckle, Ford certainly did not have the same reaction! The ads were never part
of an official campaign for Ford, but were posted on the internet for the world
to see. These ads are for the Ford Figo - which is sold in India.
It has been reported that a team of employees from JWT
India, which is the agency working with Ford Figo, created the ads and posted
them on the website “Ads of the World” … without approval from Ford. Of course
one of the biggest problems for Ford is while they did not approve of the ads
and had seemingly no control over the publication of these ads, the ads reflect
poorly on Ford. While the advertising agency has been talked about in some
media reports, it is not one that is widely known therefore the big news will
talk about Ford and not about JWT.
There were three ads that were published – mock ads – One
shows Berlusconi making the peace sign as he drives away with three women in
the trunk with the tagline: “Leave your worries behind with Figo’s extra-large
boot.” Another ad shows Paris Hilton winking as she drives away with the
Kardashian sisters tied up and gagged in the trunk – all wearing next to
nothing. The third ad shows Formula 1 race car driver Michael Schumacher
driving with F1 champions Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton
tied up and gagged in the trunk.
With the publication of these ads, Ford and JWT are being
accused of endorsing rape culture and supporting the corrupt lifestyle of
Berlusconi. (Of course what is making more news would be that Ford has endorsed
these things). Bad timing for Ford in India as well as a new anti-rape was just
passed in India after much public outcry.
Ford needs to immediately take action. Three ways to show
our customers, most importantly those in India, that we are taking their
concerns seriously are as follows:
- Fire the employees who created the ads. This immediate and harsh action shows that we are not taking this lightly and that we do not agree at all with the depictions in these ads. We cannot support these ads in any way and if we do not immediately remove those responsible, we will face even more criticism. This needs to be made public on all social avenues – our website, in the news, on Facebook and Twitter. This needs to be seen everywhere as our first action.
- Our next step needs to apologize publicly (this could be done at the same time as step number 1… explaining that we apologize for the incident and are taking immediate action)
- I think that Ford could then create a social campaign that shows everything we have done in the past to support women’s rights and perhaps other celebrities that we have endorsed. This would show that Ford does not condone what was portrayed in the ads and that the ad company did not understand our business at all. Our customers need to understand that Ford did not produce or approve the ads that were publicized.
- Ford should review their policies when it comes to outside advertising agencies working with the company. I think it would be beneficial to make those available on our website, on Facebook and on Twitter. Ford needs to take this time to become very transparent and gain the trust of the customers who have been offended by these ads.
I think with any crisis an apology can go a long way. At the
same time, I think the company needs to rely on its previous record to prove
itself. What I mean by that is that a company that hasn’t had such a crisis
before, or perhaps has not really had bad press or bad reviews (in terms of a
crisis situation) can more easily convince customers that their concerns have
been taken seriously. If a crisis occurs over and over again with the same
company, this company is going to find it hard to regain the trust of its
customers – no matter how creative they are with their social media campaign!
With this particular crisis, I think Ford may have been
lucky that while these ads were offensive and distasteful, not everyone takes
that personally and not everyone thinks badly of Ford because of them. As I
said earlier…and if you look at the ads yourself you might agree… I couldn’t
help but laugh! The ads are cartoon depictions and really aren’t out of line
with North American humour. While it would seem that Italy and India are none
to pleased, there are those that say “any press is good press!”
See the ads here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7I8nreeE2FE | http://sgrallying.blogspot.ca/2013/03/creators-of-ford-figo-ads-fired.html
