This sounds like a classic Greek story. Mighty ones brought down by a simple failure to foresee consequences. Ford Motors and it’s global creative agency JWT just bit the dust with release of unapproved ads that defy decency at all levels. Set aside all the PR apologies, it’s hard to believe such a mess-up from a brand like Ford which is quite seasoned and forward thinking when it comes to Social Media. Within moments of the ads coming out, media broke out with criticism connecting the incident to Italian mariners under trial in India to the gang rapes.
Let’s take a look at some reactions on Twitter:
Wowza: Silvio Berlusconi w/ a trunk full of tied-up women makes for the worst @ford ad ever… businessinsider.com/awful-ford-fig…
— Caroline Howard (@CarolineLHoward) March 21, 2013
It goes beyond Borders:
Paris Hilton, Berlusconi y Schumacher protagonizan una campaña de muy mal gusto de Ford India dlvr.it/37X9Dz #socialmedia — Waydn (@megustawaydn) March 25, 2013
Dear @fordfigo, how is this ad ingenious? huff.to/ZMgkDE. Tying up women in the back of your cheap car is a branding fail. — Brown Girl Daily (@browngirldaily) March 25, 2013
JWT Worldwide forced to apologise for Ford Figo celebrity press campaign created by JWT Delhi bit.ly/11BY8Rr — Campaign Brief Asia (@cbasia) March 25, 2013
Some responses can be real Fiery:
DON’T BUY FORDS: New Ford Figo Ad Shows Gagged & Bound Women. BOYCOTT FORDS 4 PROMOTING VIOLENCE TOWARDS WOMEN! huff.to/14gJYFN — ♥ Je♥ (@LAsThePlace) March 25, 2013
JWT India needs to sort out its attitude to women, and Ford need to fire them businessinsider.com/awful-ford-fig… #everydaysexism pl RT
— Danuta Kean (@Danoosha) March 22, 2013
Blueprint for a Disaster:
What we gather from the situation is that with social media, brands need to be all the more careful since what goes up, stays there forever. Bigger the brand, harder it will hit the ground. Social media is a liability you need to take care of but it is not the only thing you need to worry about. Creative agencies have to think of their people too. In Ford Figo incident, its clearly a lack of subliminal understanding of real world scenarios. Creative execs can be as creative as they want to be, but their twisted humour can land them in a soup especially if sociological consequences are ignored. This is how your liability adds up:
Responsibility = Creative People + Ideas
Risk = Intellectual Property + Social Media
Responsibility + Risk = Creative People + Ideas + Intellectual Property + Social Media = Liability
Update: 2 days into the matter, JWT India had to let of it’s Chief Creative Officer, the Creative Director and the team that was directly responsible for the offensive ads. These are the bitter consequences of misplaced creativity and dangerous concoction of twisted ideas and lack of social media policies within creative agencies
Great post and very smart to post about liability.
chynadoll035 Thanks! It just felt right. I see creative execs at big ticket agencies scrounging for ideas and coming up with most flimsy ones. Of course good ideas are not that easy to come but more than the problem of creative constipation there is a problem of discretion 🙂
Great post and very smart to post about liability.