Beta and the outdoor industry analyse the Mumsnet cock-up

[morningpaper]

The Mumsnet Incident in Brandrepublic

Garry's chum Robert:

"Don't mess with Mumsnet. It is like wrestling with an octopus. There is huge diversity within it. There are those with political ambitions as well as many looking for advice and support and everything in between. They can organise themselves very quickly. The conversation is relatively serious during the day and gets pretty wild in the evening - we found threads about wife-swapping, gangbangs, "bumsex" and drugging babies with alcohol."

PLANNER (and mum to be) - Amelia Torode, head of strategy and innovation, VCCP:

"It was astounding to watch it all happen in real time, though, from the first reaction to the haiku about Garry (Lace)'s penis size."

AGENCY HEAD - Cilla Snowball, chairman, Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO:

"But the key postmortem question is one of judgment and establishing why
the ad got cleared to run. It's patently horrible, untrue and offensive
and should never have seen the light of day.

"wife-swapping, gangbangs, "bumsex...."

TBH it makes a nice change for the advertising industry to realise that mums are not some Stepford type creation.

Good point Dittany.

Agree Dittany. It is the old virgin/whore stereotype. I would really like to threaten Garry's chum Robert with legal action for claiming MN has threads about drugging babies with alcohol.

"Thanks Kaloki, did you learn that on your advertising course?

I'm pretty sure (Beta) or the outdoor advertising association wouldn't have the cash to pay for a PR blitz do do that, given that this was a campaign done on the cheap through their own medium."

How about just through seeing what most companies do nowadays.

Any company running a proper campaign (eg. not an offensive one like theirs) knows they need a real time web presence to respond quickly to what happens on sites like this, to avoid negative publicity.

Can we collectively threaten legal action? I would really like to. It is such a huge misrepresentation of MN.

I have absolutely no idea what this is all about, but as the MNer previously known as snafu, I am loving the headline.

As you were

snaf, I saw the thread title and thought of you

Aw shucks, BALD

Sorry to be annoying but can you or anyone link me to an explanation of all this?

hang on and I'll find you some linkies x x x

An ad agency decided that to raise awareness of a new talk board they would start with a provocative poster - career women make bad mothers and it kind of snowballed, with the ad agency coming out with egg on their faces

arf arf arf

MN's collective dander was got up [understatement]

Crikey, that's a big 'un! You're a star, balders.

Cilla Snowball, bless her, crazy name, sensible woman

'But the key postmortem question is one of judgment and establishing why
the ad got cleared to run. It's patently horrible, untrue and offensive
and should never have seen the light of day.

"If you want to provoke a debate, provoke a worthwhile, positive one,
not a hostile one."

hear hear Cilla...

Sorry, did I miss anything? Been a bit busy next door having bumsex with my neighbour's husband, but luckily ds had a good tot of gin to keep him sedated so none the wiser!

But seriously, the man's attitude is just plain nasty. Sadly the advertising industry is full of 80's young guns gone to seed, and who have failed utterly to keep up with the zeitgeist.

Groucho Club, anyone?

what an utter arsewipe of an article.

He totally missed his chance to show that they learned ANYTHING from the debate. To headline the article "lessons learned" is a joke (or perhaps "a controversial statement designed to drive people online" )

Instead the article tries to foist blame off Beta for coming up with an insulting, badly-thought out campaign, and back onto those silly-billy mummies for "misunderstanding" the aim of the campaign and failing to go to THEIR website.

It's not mumsnetters' responsibility to carefully read the small print and then respond as directed. The only "right" response to an ad is the response it gets - if it doesn't achieve the "right" response it's the ad that's at fault, not the viewer.

I feel a haiku coming on... or maybe a limerick.

Beta responded with rancour
To claims that their boss was a .... hmm... can't think of a rhyme. Anyone?

arf at what might rhyme with rancour

If he doesn't like 'small penis' as a description, can we call him a 'total cock' instead?

squiffy!

squiffy, as long as you make it clear it's just a controversial statement, and put a bit at the end of your post saying "agree? Why not have your say at mumsnet.com"

I wonder what the consensus would be.

well at least you don't have 'political ambitions', madamedefarge...

btw do any of us have political ambitions?

lol at the excuse 'but we put a starburst on it, miss.'

'course they were opal fruits in my day, that's prolly why i missed it.