Dive Brief:
- Sprint’s marketing team made a questionable call releasing an ad calling competitor T-Mobile “ghetto” as part of a word association game featuring Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure and consumers.
- The telecom giant pulled the ad late Tuesday, according to Fortune, following negative backlash about the ad being seen as racist and insensitive.
- Claure took to Twitter to attempt to do damage control, but the response was unsurprisingly negative.
My job is to listen to consumers. Our point was to share customer views. Bad judgment on our part. Apologies. Taking the video down.
— MarceloClaure (@marceloclaure) April 13, 2016
Dive Insight:
The ad had Sprint CEO Claure asking consumers, “I’m going to tell you a carrier name and I want you to basically tell me what comes to your mind,” the Sprint boss begins. “T-Mobile. When I say T-Mobile to you, just a couple of words?”
The response from a white female was, “Oh my god the first word that came to my head was (grimacing) … ghetto!”
Claure attempted some poorly worded damage control on Twitter:
Honest answers from real people on my #ListeningTour across the country. Sometimes the truth hurts, @TMobile https://t.co/4WHoDLNsbj
— MarceloClaure (@marceloclaure) April 12, 2016
We're sharing real comments from real customers. Maybe not the best choice of words by the customer. Not meant to offend anyone.
— MarceloClaure (@marceloclaure) April 13, 2016
The social media response was predictably negative:
@marceloclaure @YouTube Mr McClure THIS is why Sprint will never have my business again. #sprintlikehell
— JazzEvents (@JazzEvents) April 13, 2016
And, Sprint’s competitors took advantage of the real-time marketing opportunity.
Unintended marketing debacles may not happen all the time, but when they do, the brand's initial response is crucial and will shape how the scenario plays out.
Sometimes brand reputation issues originate outside the marketing team, but problems like Sprint’s can be cleanly pinned on the decision-making process taken by the marketing department and any agency partners involved in crafting and approving the offensive ad.
Another similar example was Bloomingdale’s print catalog ad last year that implied condoning date rape. Even scandals such as Subway having its 15-year spokesperson be convicted of sex crimes against children and Volkswagen’s engineering team creating false emissions tests for its “clean” diesel vehicles, can be tied to decision making.
Sprint's response to pull the ad may quell backlash for now, but it will still have to deal with any lasting brand reputation issues associated with the ad.