[Today's posting is from
Laura Schmidt of the R+K PR Practice]
The R+K PR team just held our annual summit during which we talked about a range of PR best practices, trends and technologies. Before settling into the agenda we shot the, uh, crap. Top of mind was the controversy over the new Diet Pepsi Max and Burger King “virgin” ads.
If you’re not familiar with them, the Diet Pepsi Max ads show the “lone calorie” committing suicide. The Burger King ads feature a quest to find people in developing countries who’ve never eaten a Whopper. (See
here).
There’s been a lot of chatter over both campaigns, which have been criticized for varying insensitivities. Both beg the age old question – is even bad PR good? Expert opinion varies. Check out these articles published in PR Week, ABC News and Adweek. At R+K we believe that there can be value in taking communications risks, but such risks should always be calculated. Stay tune for more on this topic and learn more about R+K consumer education and advocacy by visiting
www.rkconnect.com/cae.