Over at Labatt someone in legal threatened to sue the Montreal Gazette over a photo they used where the kitty-killer and (alleged but probably hell yeah) corpse-defiling cannibal Magnotta enjoys a Labatts Blue in the picture. Now, this group of legal eagles probably never heard about the Streisand effect, clearly, and the result of their repeated requests to the Montreal Gazette to remove the image has spawned the twitter hastag #newlabattcampaign where all kinds of morbid jokes are now making Blue the beer choice for crazy cannibals worldwide. Tssk tssk. The twitterlanche of Labatt Blue cannibal jokes seems to never end. What this has become is a great case study of what not to do when trying to disassociate our brand from the bad guys.
"This Beer's for You. And the Voices in Your Head." - @EmmMacfarlane
UPDATE Labatt has dropped their request.
Labatt: "Once Gazette explained position, we promptly thanked them for their response, dropped the matter. We will not be following up."
Warren Kinsella even retweeted a joke from Ont PC's Rocco Rossi that Rossi deleted soon after tweetage.
Blue. Not just the colour of corpses anymore. #newlabattcampaign
One tweeter jokes that it isn't the first time Labatt has used decapitated bodies in ads, point out this old campaign from twelve years ago.
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What I really want to know is, how come no one is pointing out that the hashtag was created by a journalist for the National Post? Making fun of Labatt Blue, in the wake of one of canada's most grizzly crimes in a very long while. Is this really proper behavior for a journalist?
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PermalinkNational Post columnist Andrew Coyne's 1st joke that started the avalanche...
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PermalinkThe journalist created a hashtag for the National Post? Or did he crack a joke on twitter while he is employed as a journalist at the National Post?
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PermalinkIt makes you wonder whether this was staged by Labatt... What's the saying... any advertising is good advertising. But I don't think so, judging by the fact they dropped the matter now that it's gotten out of... hand.
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Permalinkwhen you’re done crackin’ skulls, crack yourself open a Blue.
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PermalinkLabatt did not stage this, unless they also paid that journalist to spend hours of his working day cracking beer tagline jokes under the #newlabattcampaign hashtag.
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PermalinkSeems to me someone was a bit too keen in the legal department.
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PermalinkHang on, that's not a bad idea. I'll crack twitter-jokes all day if someone pays me. Anyone? Bueller? Oh wait, I already do.
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