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Belch: Advertising and
Promotion, Sixth Edition
IMC PERSPECTIVE 17-1
582
V. Developing the
Integrated Marketing
Communications Program
17. Public Relations,
Publicity, and Corporate
Advertising
Peace Signs, Bobbleheads, Space Sprouts,
and Other PR Blunders
The power of publicity is well known to marketers, who
constantly attempt to manage it to create “buzz”
about their products and/or services. In success stories
like the movie Blair Witch Project, The PT Cruiser,
and Vespa Scooters, positive publicity played a big
part. But what happens when good intentions go
wrong? Following are some of the marketing efforts
that did not work out so well.
• McDonald’s Bobbleheads. It seems like everybody is
marketing bobbleheads these days. The hot trend of
creating the figurine likenesses of people, usually athletes,
has been adopted by a variety of companies as
well as nonprofits and universities (San Diego State
gave away Marshall Faulk bobbleheads). Unfortunately,
some of the characters had an excess of lead paint on
them, rendering them unsafe for children. McDonald’s
discovered the problem through its own testing and
recalled 100,000 of the likenesses of Chicago Bears
players Brian Urlacher and Anthony Thomas. (The figurines
were being sold for $5 each in areas just outside
Chicago.) The company then alerted the Consumer
Products Safety Commission, which issued a recall.
McDonald’s claimed that the manufacturer—Bobbie
Dreams—distributed the products prior to seeing the
test results. While no consumers were hurt, you can be
sure the relationship between McDonald’s and Bobbie
Dreams was.
• Burger King et al. In 2001, the U.S. Consumer
Products Safety Commission ordered four fast-food
chains to recall toy premiums that posed a risk to
small children. Burger King Corp. and Alcone Market-
© The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2003
ing Group were forced to recall 2.6 million of the
“Hourglass Space Sprout” and “Look for Me Bumblebee”
toys after learning that the toys, when broken,
released small beads that could cause children to
choke if the children put the beads in their mouths.
Although no one was hurt, at least 18 incidents were
reported. When the problem was discovered, Burger
King notified the CPSC and subsequently hired
outside safety experts to review future operations.
• FedEx. FedEx’s well-liked Super Bowl spot which featured
the Wizard of Oz munchkins inhaling helium to
raise their voices was not so well liked by everyone.
The National Inhalant Prevention Coalition, the
National PTA, and the Partnership for a Drug Free
America banded together to ask FedEx to discontinue
airing the spot. The company did so just a few weeks
after its initial showing.
• IBM. City officials in Chicago and San Francisco
threatened to bring lawsuits against IBM because
peace symbols, penguins, and hearts were spraypainted
on city sidewalks to promote the introduction
of IBM’s new Linux-based operating system. IBM said
the sidewalks were supposed to be painted in
biodegradable chalk, instead of the graffiti paint that
was used by the contractors. IBM learned about the
problem when a painter hired by Ch’rewd Marketing
and Promotions was arrested for criminal damage to
property, vandalism, and possession of spray paint.
Both cities threatened IBM with fines as well as costs
associated with cleaning up each of 100-plus
paintings. Sun Microsystems, Inc., a competitor of
IBM, attempted to turn IBM’s gaff into a PR bonanza
of its own by offering to clean up the paint to “clean
up after IBM.”
• Microsoft. In the fall of 2002, New York City sent
Microsoft a summons for defacing public property
when Microsoft logo butterfly decals were pasted on
sidewalks, streets and other public properties to
announce the launch of MSN 8.0 software.
In each of these cases, and there are many, many
more to report, a marketing effort turned into a public
relations problem. Fortunately, no one was hurt—
except the pride of the companies involved, their pocketbooks,
and their contractual relationships.
Sources: Kate MacArthur, “McDonald’s Recalls Lead Paint
Bobbleheads,” Sept. 20, 2002, AdAge.com, p. 1; Margie Mason,
“San Francisco and Chicago Officials Rankled by IBM’s ‘Peace’ Ads,”
www.individual.com, Apr. 30, 2001, pp. 1–2; Thor Olavsrud, “Sun
Offers to Clean Up IBM Mess,” www.Internetnews.com, Apr. 30, 2001,
p. 1; Jeanie Casison, “Toy Story,” Incentive, October 2001, pp. 10–11.