It seems Guinness’ marketing team isn’t too happy about a spoof viral video which has appeared on YouTube. The video, which has received more than (29,000) views, at the time of writing, seems to suggest share a drink whilst being involved in extra curricular (group sex) activities.
Now I have checked this out (to see what all the fuss is about) and the one thing that comes across to me is this lady is very good at balancing inanimate objects – Joke.
Seriously though, this seems to be a joke viral video which is being shared because – as with most viral videos which get picked up – it’s mildly amusing but the people at Guinness aren”t laughing. They feel that this suggestive video is causing the brand damage.
According to Marketing Week it has released a statement saying: “Please be assured that Guinness is in no way associated with this video and has approached YouTube to have it removed. We are proud of our brands and our commitment to responsible marketing, and this is not how we want our brand to be portrayed. We have made this clear in a statement on the video’s site, and the producer of the video has also now made it clear that the material is not associated with Guinness.”
What do you think? Is this really that bad for the Guinness brand?
Chris Norton is the founder of Prohibition and an award winning communications consultant with more than twenty years’ experience. He was a lecturer at Leeds Beckett University and has had a varied PR career having worked both in-house and in a number of large consultancies. He is an Integrated PR and social media blogger and writes on a wide variety of blogs across a huge amount of topics from digital marketing, social media marketing right through to technology and crisis management.
