Sex sells.  Yet, as two very different ad campaigns have recently discovered, it’s also a potent source of scandal.

Paddy Power has been rebuked for a new ad in which viewers are invited to “spot the stallions from the mares” by identifying strategically positioned transgendered spectators in the crowd at the Cheltenham Festival.

The brand saw it as a tongue-in-cheek spin on the classic Where’s Wally? book; in fact, change the “a” for an “i” and you’ve got a ready-made pun ...

As we noted at the time, The News of the World was ultimately undone by an advertisers’ revolt fuelled by public outrage and stoked by social media campaigning.

Fast-forward seven months, and this Sunday sees the launch of The Sun On Sunday – not quite long enough for a birth, so let’s call it a resurrection.  Certainly, despite the name change, many expect The Sun On Sunday to be nothing less than a rebadged version of the disgraced NOTW.  It’s ...

Confession time: when you work for an agency and a brand makes a mistake that takes their marketing completely off message, you email it to your colleagues then thank the advertising gods you weren’t in charge of the campaign. Then you forget about it until you see a new campaign that redeems their reputation and silently praise them on a good repair job.

But in the case of McDonalds, they didn’t redeem themselves and in just a fortnight, a poor decision ...

Historically, when it comes to making the most out of the media as part of your marketing strategy, brands have had two main options.  The biggest question has been whether or not to pay for the hard sell of advertising or attempt to engage via the soft sell of PR – paid media vs earned media, in marketing terms.

Both have their advantages and disadvantages.  Paid media enables guaranteed placement of controlled messages that can reach large numbers of target audience.  ...

I see so many companies whose opening line on any marketing brief is that the agency ‘must have experience in X sector.’ To those companies, I’d like to ask: why?

Don’t get me wrong, I understand the rationale. You want to feel comfortable that your marketing agency will be able to get on with the job without you having to teach them about “your” sector. You believe that, by picking somebody who already has some industry experience, you’re going to get something that ...

The news that McDonald’s effort to engage with Twitter followers has backfired is a reminder that brands have to be careful not to view social media as a traditional marketing tool, and adapt their social media strategy to suit the changing landscape of customer communication.

As part of a paid tweet campaign guaranteeing appearance in the day’s trending topics, McDonald’s issued statements under the hashtag #McDStories.  It took mere minutes for the message to be spectacularly derailed as the public ...

I consider myself a bit of a culture vulture, so when I go abroad I spend my time looking at architecture, visiting sites of historical interest, museums, galleries and exhibitions. Restaurants that serve up local dishes are top of the list; global chains are not. But I have a confession to make, the one thing that I never consider part of the culture is watching the local television stations nor the local ads.

That said, I am a compulsive viewer of ...

The recent news that children’s wear brand La Redoute published an advert in which a naked bather made an unwanted cameo has put renewed focus on marketing creative disasters.  In the last of our series of tips for the year ahead – following pieces on PR New Year’s Resolutions and 2012 Digital Strategy – we take a look at how to get design in marketing right first time, every time.

Know What You Want – before ...

We’ve all read stories about businesses that have enjoyed phenomenal success thanks to social media; from the muffin seller in New York who has developed cult status to big businesses using it to enhance customer service and sales, the benefits are seemingly endless. Until, that is, it goes wrong.

And when it goes wrong, boy does it go wrong, as Atlanta-based restaurant Boners BBQ have found to their cost.

A Boners BBQ customer, Stephanie S, posted a negative review on review site ...

No sooner had we published our top PR resolutions for 2012, than we received a truckload of messages asking for our top tips for building the right digital marketing strategy in the year ahead.

We reckon that getting ahead in the online world is high on many business’ to do lists but, like giving up smoking or losing weight, it requires preparation, patience and persistence to see a difference.

The good news is that now is the time to take a ...