COVID-19 is all that anyone (including this blog) can talk about, and for good reason. It is completely changing the world as we know it and is creating a new normal. As we all try to figure out what this means for our futures, advertisers had to quickly adapt to the changing times.
This became emblematic as brands like KFC had to rush to pull their “Finger Lickin'” campaign from the airwaves. During a time when health experts are emphasizing clean hands and avoiding touching our faces – an ad that is all about putting fingers in our mouth in public was certainly not reading the room.
Meanwhile, companies like Coors swiftly took steps to adjust to coronavirus. They pulled their out of touch March Madness ads as the event got canceled. Despite this initial success, they then made a mistake by making themselves the “Official Beer of Working Remotely,” which was criticized for making light of the serious situation and those who are isolating to help society survive. They promptly put a stop to the new message after said criticism.
It is understandable that marketers would want to put their best foot forward during this time. As more people are isolated at home, they are watching television in record numbers. Television viewership is up 18% from the same week last year and up 43% among teen demographics. And people are streaming more than twice the amount of content that they streamed during the same time last year. Having access to that amount of eyes is a dream for advertisers who haven’t seen these sorts of numbers in years. But they need to be very careful about what they are putting out.
Amazon continues to promote its swift delivery times, but people around the country are struggling to get anything delivered and two-day delivery windows are turning into two-week delivery delays. As the brand deals with worker strikes and additional pandemic constraints, signs point to deliveries being delayed even longer. They should probably rethink the promises they are making to consumers in advertising, especially when they are consistently unable to fulfill those promises.
In these uncertain times, the best thing that brands can do is to switch their focus to social responsibility. The world, and America in particular, is facing unprecedented shortages of necessary supplies. And record numbers of people are unemployed. Some companies are already taking action to help in any way they can. Guinness has pledged to help out-of-work bartenders. And Bacardi has diverted production at eight distilleries and is instead going to be producing hand sanitizer.
The steps these two brands are taking work for them because they are genuinely taking steps to help and they are taking steps that make sense for their brand identities. More companies need to follow their lead and take authentic steps to be socially responsible and help a world in crisis. Brands who take the steps to help alleviate these issues will be remembered much more fondly than those that focus on self-serving revenue gains. In a world that is talking about nothing else, the role that brands take in the coming months could make or break their outlook for the future.
4 Responses to Actions Speak Louder Than Ads