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Sometimes you have to own bad PR. You can have all the crisis communications plans in place and prepare for every eventuality, but when push comes to shove, sometimes you have to throw the plans out the window and work with the situation.
That’s exactly what Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups did with their seasonal Christmas tree candy. Consumers were tweeting, posting and sharing that the candy they received looked far from the advertised Christmas tree shape. Many were up in arms and some scoffed at the deformed chocolately blob.
So how did Reese’s react? They didn’t reissue the candy. They didn’t apologize. They came up with a brilliant slogan of #AllTreesAreBeautiful along with a graphic of the misshapen chocolate tree looking in a mirror with a perfect tree reflecting back.
Not only does this turn the public on its head for the typical Internet behavior, but it works with many positive campaigns used in other industries like body image perception. It is a humorous response to bad PR that worked out well for Reese’s.
PR professionals should take note of how Reese’s responded. Sometimes a company needs to stand their ground and assess the best response to bad PR. It doesn’t always have to be the sky is falling. Humor, especially in the Internet world, is a great response when so much negativity is floating around.
