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Although they may not be giving us their Conde Nast budgets yet, advertisers may be finally recognizing that the Internet has the power to either create or destroy a campaign. After all, it was we, the people of the web, who allowed the Old Spice commercials to gain the viral traction that eventually lead to Isaiah Mustafah‘s breakout stardom. But this works both ways: Urban Outfitters got so much shit from bloggers for their “Eat Less” shirts that they pretended the item never even existed.
Thankfully, the PR guys for Pretzel Crisps – which recently put out an equally body-unfriendly ad that showed pictures of their sliver-stacked product with the tag-line “You Can Never Be Too Thin” – seem to realize that you can’t just erase something once it’s on the ‘net. Not only did their ad cause an outcry for quote-unquote women’s bloggers, but local activists as well, who went so far as to vandalize the ad with statistics about the dangers of anorexia and body-image disorders. Now Pretzel Crisps is going around apologizing to the Internet and anyone who was offended by the campaign. Here’s the comment we received today:
We appreciate the feedback received from the blog community and are now going in a new direction with our ad campaign. The ironic thing is that our website and Facebook page are all about eating. Our health benefits section details how our products can be part of a healthy eating regimen. We in no way advocate unhealthy weight loss or want to promote a bad body image. The ads are coming down asap! Thanks again, and our apologies for any offense caused. – Perry at Pretzel Crisp
We forgive you Perry, but you can really make it up to us by buying some ad space on a couple of those blogs you offended and putting up those healthy eating stats you mentioned, where people will see them.
