How far will companies go to keep up with the youth market?

After Dr. Pepper managed to post a mention of a porn film on a teenage girl’s Facebook profile last month, we have been pondering the boundaries that come with social media promotions and how far they are being pushed in relation to the youth market.


A Facebook app launched as part of the Dr. Pepper’s ‘What’s the worst that could happen?’ social media campaign saw a fourteen year old girl’s profile being hijacked with a comment that referenced a pornography film posted on her page (http://bit.ly/93ANaw). Being in an age where information is never more than a mouse click away, the young girl decided to take a look at the streamed film. Fortunately, internet security kicked in, but not before her mother spotted her search and subsequently launched a campaign to get the app banned. It was swiftly removed and an apology issued from the Coca Cola brand, with a promise they will look into how appropriate their future promotions are.

In essence the ‘What’s the worst that could happen?’ app, which saw 160,000 people sign up, was clever and fitted well with the youthful, edgy brand but the inappropriate content left Dr. Pepper open for censure. The immediacy of social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube etc can get a brand name out to a target audience that are more open to persuasive online brand messages and do not access other forms of media as regularly. The lesson to be learnt from Coca Cola is to assess how appropriate the campaign is to the online youth market you are targeting. What might be acceptable for an 18 year old boy is not as suitable for a 13 year old girl.

The campaign generated a considerable amount of coverage for the Coca Cola brand, perhaps more than if the application had continued to run on Facebook. The controversy surrounding the story, which was widely posted on sites such as Twitter and Facebook, created a huge number of people accessing the app before it was removed. But it raised questions for both Coca Cola as a brand and Facebook apps in general and how tight the regulations are now going to become for social media promotions aimed at young people.

Fortunately for us, we don’t have any controversial campaigns featuring inappropriate content lined up any time soon. But it has left us thinking, what’s the worst that could happen?