Comments on: PETA Fail, or How Not to Spread the Word on Twitter

By: Gray-nomad

Gray-nomad — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 06:28:09 +0000

I NEVER read Twitter, you just helped convince me I am not missing a thing, gaining life and time.

By: Aliza Sherman

Aliza Sherman — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 03:39:58 +0000

Totally agree with you, Kelby. If I do something wrong and someone calls me on it, I apologize and work to do things better. If I offend someone and someone calls me on it, I do the same.

PETA may have an important message but their holier than thou attitude about “who cares if we did it wrong” is offensive. We may believe in the cause but why alienate the very people who could be supportive? There is no justification for it.

Definitely a #fail for not even realizing or acknowledging what they did wrong. The arrogance puts a bad taste in my mouth for what should be a good and important cause. So shortsighted it is ridiculous.

By: Dan Bedore

Dan Bedore — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 22:16:34 +0000

Interesting. Curious about your thoughts on how it could have been done better. What if they DM’d the Mom Bloggers and asked them to RT the message.

By: PR Nightmares: Salvation is in the Reaction | Kelby Carr

PR Nightmares: Salvation is in the Reaction | Kelby Carr — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 19:19:12 +0000

[...] the PR nightmare they created when they decided to spam several moms this week. Since my last post, PETA Fail, or How Not to Spread the Word on Twitter, I have learned that they also used email and Facebook fan pages to continue their spam. That was [...]

By: Kristie McNealy

Kristie McNealy — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 17:31:48 +0000

Very nice article Kelby. PETA wasn’t following me either when they decided to @ me. I have to admit that just seeing them pop up in my stream got my hackles up a bit. One look at that avatar with a pig, and I thought I was going to read a scathing comment about my bacon tweets from the previous night. At least that would have been actual communication about something in my stream and relevant to me though . . .

Instead, it was the elephant pic spam, which was 100 times more irritating than being lambasted for being a carnivore.

Not that I don’t like animals – I really do. I don’t, however, like tactics like the ones PETA is using.

By: Angry Julie Monday

Angry Julie Monday — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:53:44 +0000

Rather than the directed tweet from PETA, I got the e-mail. I know many many many other people who got the same e-mail. This is not the best approach for PETA’s marketing/media team. As a mother, I’m pretty educated on things. As a women, I would have to say I’m also educated. PETA, don’t think that we are stupid because we are mom bloggers.

By: Summer

Summer — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 04:25:58 +0000

Based on the PETA commercials, they knew what they were doing and just don’t care. This is a group that has no problem advertising in the most sexist, racist, insensitive ways possible and waving off people by saying the ends are worth the means.

I’m a vegetarian, I absolutely support humane treatment for animals, and I blocked PETA as soon as their Twitter account started. Some groups have no desire to relate and discuss.

By: Cat

Cat — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 23:04:04 +0000

Let this be a lesson to them for the future. Thanks to all of the twitter spam, their copy/paste email to me went straight to the junk folder with out even being read.

Unfortunately for them, it’s not always about the message itself, but in how it’s delivered.

By: trisha

trisha — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:11:25 +0000

I got an email from Peta. I wasnt taken aback from the email pitch as I get 100s of those and most from people I have never had a prior relationship with. I didn’t discount this as anything different then that.

I am not for or against PETA. I have animals, I love animals, and I am for the protection of them. This isnt really about the message that they are sending but more the methodology they are using.

I do believe that this needs to be a lesson for all PR. That finding a relationship with an individual and a voice with a few that are aligned with your product, business, or thought can be a much more powerful statement then sending out thousands of blanket shock tactics.

The truth is we all share and we all know if its not one of us pitched, but all of us pitched. What could have been a strong article that took a viral force in the right arena, backfired into a joke.

Its a shame all the way around. Again, no winners here.

Trisha

By: Kimberly/Mom in the City

Kimberly/Mom in the City — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:17:53 +0000

This is a thoughtful measured piece. When I initially received the tweet, I wondered if it was because one of my reviewers recently wrote a circus review on my site. It was only later in the day that I realized several moms had been sent the exact same tweet.

What would have been more helpful would have been a link to the Washington Post article on the topic. (Unlike the shock value of the photo tweet, it presented valuable information.) I will be watching to see the USDA findings.

Yes PETA did get my attention. They just lost some of my respect in the process.