When good intentions miss the mark: Lessons from Budweiser

Empathy, sensitivity and doing good have come to the fore in brand communications as the industry fights to emerge from the COVID-19 gloom. There have been numerous campaigns that have moved away from hardcore hardsell and instead spoken to consumers in a more sensitive tone, addressing their concerns amid the pandemic. However, sometimes brands slip in their strategy and their good intentions get overshadowed by unintended gaffs and tone-deaf communication.

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A recent example is that of Budweiser’s #StrongerTogether campaign with an influencer touch to it, which received severe backlash in social media. The core thought behind the campaign was a noble one – it sought to encourage people to register three people for COVID-19 vaccination along with themselves and help them get vaccinated against the virus.

The campaign, in association with Humans of Bombay, featuring actor Sanjana Sanghi with her domestic workers, whom she helped get vaccinated, was blamed on social media for being extremely classist and casteist. Instagram user @dietsabya was the first to point this out, and soon others followed suit with their own stories on how the brand had reached out to them. The post was finally taken down after 24 hours, but not before hundreds of unavoidable snapshots were taken and floated on the Internet.

Many also slammed the silence maintained by AB InBev (the parent company of Budweiser) in this entire episode. The first rule of any crisis handling is not to let a vacuum develop, but instead tackling it with understanding and tact. Adgully received no response to its email query in this case from AB InBev.

Facing criticism from a nameless and faceless army of social media users is increasingly becoming an almost constant menace for brands, making crisis management a perpetual activity.

In Budweiser’s case, will the brand be able to reinstate the core thought of the campaign? The campaign seems to be a lesson in inadequate social listening and reminds every brand to not underestimate this tool.

Indrajeet Mookherjee, Managing Partner, dentsumcgarrybowen India, stressed, “Social listening is a key aspect in helping brands have meaningful and engaging conversations with consumers.” He believed that since consumer behaviour had seen a paradigm shift during the pandemic with people spending more time online, it was critical for brands to be mindful of how they communicated and built narratives.

Aadheeraj Krishna, Creative Director, Gozoop, too, pointed out that social listening has always been essential and that brands are always expected to have their ear to the ground and their finger on the pulse of the society. It is crucial to ensure that the communication between a brand and a society is smooth.

Is crisis management entirely possible online when a brand fails to apply the findings of their social listening?

Ritesh Ujjwal, Founder and CEO, Kofluence, felt that brands can contain a crisis by being cautious and ensuring communication that’s true to their ethos. “Crisis management needs to be done correctly by ensuring that we don’t alienate a large part of the audience,” he further said.

Krishna added here, “Even bad feedback can be turned around into a good campaign. A brand must maintain their distance from social media if they don’t have experts at hand to deal with the crisis of such magnitude. As long as you don’t preach and try to come across as painfully self-righteous, the audience will move on very quickly. Use your wit, creativity, humility to turn the crisis on its head.”

For Mookherjee, owning up the mistake was important. “As an iconic global brand, the right thing to do is to own up, apologise, and move on. It is crucial to not forget that while it takes years to build brand equity, it takes just one wrong message to undo all the goodwill,” he pointed out.

So, where does a brand like Budweiser head from here? Should they scrap the original campaign altogether, or should they try to re-execute it in a different way?

When a plan backfires online and has social media users slamming it, it is only fair for brands to respond to their concerns at the earliest. Silence on the brands will only cause more baseless stories to brew. Agreeing with this, Kofluence’s Ujjwal said, “Coming out clean is the most apt way as it will showcase that brands are listening and sharing their point of view with a corresponding explanation. Staying silent will only worsen the situation.”

Gozoop’s Krishna here posed a question, “If a friend, family member, or a loved one showed you the mirror and told you where you went wrong, would you just shut down? Or would you introspect? Try to understand their point of view and communicate with them?”

Communication is essential in any relationship.

(Edited by Shanta Saikia.)