In marketing publicity stunts are carefully designed to attract a lot of attention from organizers, investors and the general public. They are meant to spark an interest in the brand or the products that is being publicized. PR stunts are incredibly delicate. They can go so well that it boosts the company\u2019s profits or they can go so terribly wrong that everyone completely boycotts the brand. A lot of brands are inclined to take that chance in order to entice potential customers. But what are the consequences of it going wrong? To discover this, we compiled a list of some very bold PR stunts that failed spectacularly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
LifeLock, an American identity theft protection company based in Tempe, Arizona, had their CEO Todd Davis put out an advertisement with his social security number clearly on display. This ad went up on billboards with the intent of challenging people to try and hack and steal his identity. This was done to portray that they were confident about their service. However, a few years later it was found that his identity was stolen not one, but thirteen times. The Federal Trade Commission disagreed fined the corporate $12 million for deceptive advertising in March 2010.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When soft drink company Snapple decided to set a Guinness world record attempt for the \u201cWorld\u2019s Largest Ice Pop\u201d in the summer of 2005, they didn\u2019t consider one tiny factor: Nature. They decided to erect the world\u2019s largest popsicle in Union Square. Soon, the 25-foot-tall, 17.5-ton frozen Snapple snack started to melt. Union Square was flooded in strawberry-kiwi flavored liquid and the surrounding streets had to be closed off by the fire department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2007, a radio station held a contest for its listeners called \u201chold your wee for a Wii\u201d. The winner would be the one who could drink the most water without using the bathroom. However, the next day a woman, Jennifer Strange, died of water intoxication. She was allegedly trying to win the Wii for her children.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In marketing publicity stunts are carefully designed to attract a lot of attention from organizers, investors and the general public. They are meant to spark an interest in the brand or the products that is being publicized. PR stunts are incredibly delicate. They can go so well that it boosts the company\u2019s profits or they…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13343,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n