Ok so I’m a little late on this one, but I chose to write about it because while there has been a lot of talk about how terrible the campaign was, I have yet to see any posts providing constructive criticism with suggestions of what the students at Hunter College could have done instead.
In case you haven’t heard about the Hunter College - Coach campaign take a look below at the recap which appeared in PR Week.
Background: “A PR campaign designed by students at Hunter College in New York ,and sponsored by the Coach fashion label, is coming under criticism for promoting a fake persona complete with a Facebook profile and blog, according to AdWeek. As part of the campaign, which aimed to promote the anti-counterfeiting goals of Coach and the International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition, posters that read “Missing – $500 reward!!” with a picture of a student named Heidi Cee, asking for the return of her Coach bag were planted around the campus. Tear-off tabs included Cee’s phone number and addresses to her blog, MySpace page, and Facebook profile.
An elaborate story describing how a fake bag was returned instead of her real one ensued. The nonexistent Cee then turned to blogging about fake designer bags and linking them to child labor and terrorism.”
Here’s the campaign video:
Diagnosis: This is simple. The campaign is a clear case of Astroturfing. Astroturfing is, for many, a big no-no in the PR industry, and the fact that this campaign was allowed to go on shows, in my opinion, a clear lack of guidance. If the students who put the campaign together had been receiving guidance, they would have known about the Anti-astroturfing campaign championed by Paull Young and Trevor Cook.
Bob LeDrew, author of the PR blog FlackLife, posted a truly interesting interview with Stuart Ewen, professor of Film and Media Studies at Hunter College and author of the industry book “PR! A Social History of Spin.” Those students could have really used Ewen’s experience and perspective. He might have been able to steer them towards another route. While it was truly creative and made very good use of social media, I think the campaign was a bad idea.
Prescription: So what could the Hunter College students have done differently?
They could have created a campaign, from a student’s perspective, that explored the creation of a Coach bag, from the leather to the store to their closets. Along the way, they could have profiled the people who actually help manufacture the bag and then show how the counterfeiting industry hurts these people and their livelihoods. If it was done correctly and balanced with on-campus events, the campaign proposed here could have been very powerful while maintaining the industry’s ethical standards.
Just a thought…
Posted by jaywalk1
