Dunkin Donuts cave in to political blogger pressure

May 31st, 2008 by Lloyd Gofton

At Liberate Media we like to offer examples of the power of social media and congratulate those that utilise the medium to drive change…usually for the better. Well, of course change for the better isn’t always the case and this post is an example of the use of blogging for what i personally believe is a ridiculous and quite dangerous cause.

Dunkin Donuts in the US has managed to cause a storm by bowing to blogger pressure to remove an ad, not because of environmental issues, or inaccuracy, but because of one item of clothing - an Arab keffiyeh scarf. And yes, you guessed it - it is because of potential terrorist affiliations.

Gordon McMillian over at Gordon’s Republic confirms that the reason Dunkin Donuts decided to pull the ad staring Rachel Ray a US TV chef and talk show host was due to mounting pressure from right-wing bloggers threatening to boycott the company with posts such as “Rachel Ray: Dunkin Donuts Jihad Tool”.

The company itself had this to say: Margie Myers, senior VP-communications for Dunkin’ Brands, commented: “In a recent online ad, Rachael Ray is wearing a black-and-white silk scarf with a paisley design. It was selected by the stylist for the advertising shoot. Absolutely no symbolism was intended. However, as of this past weekend, we are no longer using the online ad because the possibility of misperception detracted from its original intention to promote our iced coffee.”

It beggars belief that we’ve actually got to the stage where a simple item of clothing used in a completely irrelevant ad can cause this much uproar, resulting in a well known brand stepping down so easily.

As i said at the start of this post, this is a real and impressive case study of the power of social media, but in this instance it’s one that i won’t be proud to use. Furthermore, i fear it will be used by those that insist social media should be feared by brands rather than welcomed, but we take the rough with the smooth.

The BBC has the full story.

                              

Tags: bloggers, dunkin donughts, keffiyeh scarf, Rachel Ray

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 31st, 2008 at 6:16 am and is filed under Blog, Blogging, Digital communications, Journalism, Social media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.