{"id":112623,"date":"2018-02-19T11:03:24","date_gmt":"2018-02-19T11:03:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/?p=112623"},"modified":"2018-02-20T15:26:08","modified_gmt":"2018-02-20T15:26:08","slug":"pr-lessons-from-center-parcs-and-richard-littlejohn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/blog\/pr-lessons-from-center-parcs-and-richard-littlejohn\/","title":{"rendered":"PR lessons from Center Parcs and Richard Littlejohn"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Last week, Tom Daley and his husband Dustin Lance Black announced that they\u2019re expecting their first child. Daily Mail columnist Richard Littlejohn then wrote a piece headlined \u2018Please don\u2019t pretend two dads is the new normal\u2019, which led to Center Parcs withdrawing their advertising from the Daily Mail altogether.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Littlejohn\u2019s article was at best controversial and at worse homophobic and bigoted. But it\u2019s not surprising, Littlejohn has written dozens of offensive articles and the views he expresses in this article are not out of character \u2013 so why the furore?<\/p>\n<p>Stop Funding Hate, the campaign group that informs brands that their adverts are appearing next to offensive content, has gained huge traction in the 18 months it\u2019s been running. It encourages readers to screenshot or photograph articles that are offensive next to advertisers on the same page and tweet them at the company. Among the group\u2019s \u2018victories\u2019 are Lego and the Body Shop, both of which ended their relationship with the Daily Mail after public pressure.<\/p>\n<p>For many brands, the issue is their advertising slots are not handpicked \u2013 in a digital world, your advert can go out through a third-party network and appear in places you might not have expected or desired. The brands can limit which outlets they appear on, but with the Mail\u2019s huge online audience and massive output makes it an advertiser\u2019s dream.<\/p>\n<p>But when it goes wrong, what should you, as a PR, do?<\/p>\n<p>Center Parcs was asked the following on Twitter:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Hey <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CenterParcsUK?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@CenterParcsUK<\/a> does this mean same-sex parents shouldn&#8217;t bring their families to your holiday parks?? Pretty confusing message advertising with <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DailyMailUK?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@DailyMailUK<\/a> &#8211; please address. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/StopFundingHate?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@StopFundingHate<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/GCu6lfHOvd\">pic.twitter.com\/GCu6lfHOvd<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Cal Stannard (@calwst) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/calwst\/status\/964471173676445696?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 16, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>And it <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CenterParcsUK\/status\/964522775116500995\" target=\"_blank\">responded<\/a>: \u2018We take where we advertise very seriously and have a number of steps to prevent our advertising from appearing alongside inappropriate content.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018We felt this placement was completely unacceptable and therefore ceased advertising with the Daily Mail with immediate effect.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>This caused division online with some believing they have made the right move by showing their values, and some believing they\u2019re against free speech and should be boycotted themselves. The right action depends on your business and what you want to achieve, but these arguments are worth considering.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 18px;\"><strong>Brand Values<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\nIt\u2019s building a brand 101 \u2013 what do you, as an organisation, believe in and stand for? This can be important to reach the right audience and grow as a company. Center Parcs\u2019 corporate website explains the company\u2019s concept is about \u2018bringing families together and back to nature\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s reasonable to believe that Littlejohn\u2019s article, which suggested some families weren\u2019t \u2018normal\u2019, goes against these values. And it is easy to argue that in doing nothing, Center Parcs could be seen as endorsing or supporting the content. Your values are your choice \u2013 and the decisions you make should align with them. If people don\u2019t like it, they may not be the customers you want.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 18px;\"><strong>Getting political<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\nIt\u2019s up to you if the brand makes political decisions or actions. Imagine telling Lush it shouldn\u2019t be political \u2013 the brand is known for its support of animal welfare (among dozens of other issues) and its customers expect it to make decisions that align with that position. If a brand\u2019s audience doesn\u2019t like it taking a stance, perhaps the company has misjudged their customer base or their customer base has misjudged them.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 18px;\"><strong>Censoring free speech<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\nNo one is required to advertise in a publication and it\u2019s not a publication\u2019s right to be funded no matter what it publishes. Pulling your adverts is not censoring free speech, it\u2019s making a decision that aligns with your company values and ultimately that decision is going to have an effect on you.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What do you think of the Littlejohn\/Center Parcs issue? Let us know on Twitter <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Vuelio\">@Vuelio<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What can PRs learn from the Center Parcs, Tom Daley and Richard Littlejohn debacle? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":423,"featured_media":112626,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7365,7272,7238],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112623"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/423"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112623"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112727,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112623\/revisions\/112727"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}