[MSN Money] Durex condoms gets trolled by FaceBook fans

SwoLy-D · Jun 5, 2013

Durex condoms gets trolled by FaceBook fans

Durex condoms' social media strategy goes wrong :grin:
The brand falls into a Facebook pitfall after leaving itself open to pranksters.

By Aimee Picchi

Durex probably thought it had hit upon a brilliant social media campaign for a new emergency condom delivery service -- at least until the campaign spiraled into odd territory.

The condom maker asked Facebook (FB -2.64%) fans to vote on which city should receive the service, called SOS Condoms, which sends rush delivery of condoms to couples in need, Bloomberg reports.

Unfortunately, the vote was apparently seized upon by Internet pranksters, who gave the most votes to Batman -- as in the conservative Muslim province in Turkey, not the superhero. (No doubt the shared name helped win many of the votes.)

Meanwhile, some locals aren't too happy about the campaign.

"I'm Kurdish, and I know how we are, so this is impossible. Our culture is religious," Abdurrahman Temelli, a sustainable development consultant from a neighboring city, told Bloomberg.

But for Reckitt Benckiser Group (RGPBF), which owns Durex, the campaign is just another example of how marketers sometimes fail to predict the ways social media campaigns can go awry.

In the condom case, pranksters hijacked the campaign, but some efforts to reach out to consumers have turned out much, much worse.

Last year, McDonald's (MCD -1.98%) pushed Twitter users to write about fond experiences at the restaurant under the hashtag #McDStories. Instead, consumers wrote gems such as, "Ordered a McDouble, something in the damn thing chipped my molar." The restaurant chain shut down the campaign just a few hours later.

Then there was the NRA's American Rifleman, which tweeted, "Good morning, shooters. Happy Friday! Weekend plans?" the day of the Aurora, Colo., movie theater shooting. Sample reply, "Yeah, just gonna mourn a bit. And you?"

Durex could have avoided the whole mess if it had offered a multiple-choice response rather than allowing Internet jokers to write in any city they wanted.

As for SOS Condoms, the service won't be offered in Batman or anywhere else, a Durex spokeswoman told Bloomberg. She added that the condom maker's social media efforts are moving "on to a new sphere."

Follow Aimee Picchi on Twitter at @aimeepicchi.
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Sounds like something a ClutchFan would do... :grin:

Sounds like they were "blocked"... and their plan was not impermeable.

da_juice · Jun 5, 2013

The internet annoys me sometimes. I like a good practical joke, but those condoms could have actually gone to use, especially in parts of the 3rd world.

plcmts17 · Jun 5, 2013

what a bunch of tools.

apollo33 · Jun 5, 2013

Muslims no use protection?

Ras137 · Jun 5, 2013

SwoLy-D said: ↑

Sounds like something a ClutchFan would do... :grin:

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The sad part is I counted to make sure there were 16 Na before Batman. Apparently so is the person who did that.

Nice attention to detail. I'm now going to curl up in the corner.

Xsatyr · Jun 5, 2013

da_juice said: ↑

The internet annoys me sometimes. I like a good practical joke, but those condoms could have actually gone to use, especially in parts of the 3rd world.
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I didn't get the impression this was meant for third world countries...

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[MSN Money] Durex condoms gets trolled by FaceBook fans

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