What happens when a meme makes a corporation lose control of its brand?
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When you were��envisioning what the future might look like,��did you ever��think that 2018��would bring a��major detergent brand��being forced to warn consumers not to eat pre-packaged laundry pods? Indeed, of the hundreds of��images that��riff on the��so-called “Tide Pod challenge” ��� an internet inside joke that has led hundreds of fame-hungry online��citizens��to put the laundry pods in their mouth and (usually) pretend to consume them ��� there is one meme in particular that��does a good job summarizing the absurdity of this faux-trend.��It��reads:
1968: In 50 years time I bet we���ll have bases on the Moon and put a human on Mars.
2018: Doctors concerned that ���Tide Pod��� meme causing people to eat laundry detergent.
The ridiculousness of the Tide Pod challenge, surely, has contributed to its virality. Since December, the Procter & Gamble company, owners of the Tide brand, have faced an unprecedented swell of publicity surrounding Tide Pods, their packaged laundry pod brand, as a result of the meme.
It is, in part, understandable; after all, the packaged laundry pods definitely resemble candy���for this reason, young��children and adults with dementia��have accidentally consumed them. While there have been reports of people accidentally eating the pods surfacing since 2013, the eating-tide-pods meme became��increasingly popular after humor site CollegeHumor��posted a��sketch titled ���Don���t Eat the Laundry Pods��� in March 2017. This��might have been the��gateway��to the ���Tide Pod challenge,” a competition in which teens post videos of themselves chewing on packaged laundry pods.
Preventing children and adults from eating Tide Pods is a serious matter. Indeed, the American Association of Poison Control Centers (AAPCC) issued a statement on Jan. 22 stating that in one week in 2018, the AAPCC saw 47 cases of ���intentional exposures cases��� to laundry pods��among teens, bringing the 2018 total to 86 teens.
���We cannot stress enough how dangerous this is to the health of individuals ��� it can lead to seizure, pulmonary edema, respiratory arrest, coma, and even death,��� Stephen Kaminski, JD, AAPCC���s CEO and executive director,��said in a statement.
Despite warnings from the company and public health groups, the��dark joke about��eating laundry pods has become an internet phenomenon. The national press has reported on it. Countless memes have have been��shared about it. Celebrities have commented on it. A pizzeria in Brooklyn has created Tide Pod pizzas that they call ���Pied Pods.��� A North Carolina bakery��makes��Tide Pod doughnuts. And there’s an online��recipe for a “Tide Pod Challenge shot,” made from blue cura��ao, orange vodka and white chocolate liqueur.
Tide Pods are a household name, and now teens and��young adults��everywhere are��seeing the brand’s name in their social media feeds��many times a day. It���s��the kind of publicity that a brand would pay thousands, even millions of dollars to obtain. Except in this case, this publicity is linked to jokes about��death.
The Tide Pod challenge meme presents��a��public relations��crisis that is perpetuated by the speed and vastness of the internet, and it is now totally out of Tide���s control ��� which some experts say could��constitute a��modern public relations��nightmare.
���If the internet turns on you, you have to do a lot of work,��� says Victoria Vix Reitano, a digital marketing and social media expert and the CEO of CreatiVix Media. ���The internet has the most unlimited memory in the world. Tide would�� have to spend quite a bit of money and focus on original content to make these searches go away [in order to recover].���
The quick pace of the internet has changed the public relations landscape ��� putting��brands like Tide Pods under the microscope and subjecting them to��ceaseless public scrutiny as the meme spreads.
���You can���t delete it, but you can have a good response to it that becomes aligned with the story,��� Reitano said.
Erik Bernstein, vice president of Bernstein Crisis Management, said the response to a crisis like this is ���proportionate to the threat.���
���In this case Tide���s PR team has one primary mission — make certain nobody, and I mean nobody, could even possibly think the brand endorses eating their product,��� Bernstein said. ���As long as the brand continues to use every opportunity to say, ���Hey, don���t eat Tide pods��� then there shouldn���t be significant recovery needed.”
The PR team at Procter��& Gamble has worked with social media sites like YouTube to remove Tide Pod challenge videos, and even enlisted Robert Gronkowski, tight end for the New England Patriots, to make a PSA video��warning the public��not to eat Tide Pods.
In an email to Salon, Procter & Gamble spokeswoman Petra Renck said the Tide team��was very worried about the meme.
���Nothing is more important to us than the safety of people who use our products,��� Renck said. ���We are deeply concerned about the intentional and improper use of liquid laundry pacs by young people engaging in intentional self-harm challenges.”
Renck outlined the steps they���ve taken to avert the crisis, including working with social media networks to remove content that encourages the harmful behavior, and distributing a safety message on various social channels.
���We are engaging with people on social media to continue to communicate that laundry pacs are made to clean clothes,��� she said.
When asked if sales had been affected, Renck said: ���We���ve not seen a measurable impact on sales of Tide Pods since this social conversation began.”
Bernstein��said��that in this case, the old adage ���any press is good press��� likely doesn���t apply.
���I don���t know if I���d say it���s a dream come true,��� Bernstein said. ���I would imagine a few people at Tide lost sleep when the trend first began.���
