Ice cream made from breast milk? Hu?! Well... the media certainly had something to say!
An international wave of headlines hit the news after the London based store, The Icecreamists, began serving a breast milk ice cream, yes, breast milk. In all fairness look at the response it has got! Now that is one hell of a way to get in the media! But is it for the right reasons?
'A masked women, in pink lycra, filling an ice cream dish with a baby's bottle and sporting two pointed nipple cones. It's definitely not boring!' (Kate Howe - Head of Comms, Fitness Industry Association).
The Icecreamists staplines read - Lick Your Addiction' and 'God save the cream' (Hilarious!)
'Taylor Herring helped spread the word that the concoction, named the 'Baby Gaga', was churned with a donation of 30 fluid ounces of breast milk.' From what I can gather these 'donors' were accessed online?! The 'Baby Gaga is a vanilla and lemon-scented dessert churned with human breast milk. Gaga's lawyers are going Gaga, apparently furious, initially demanding that the parlour cease production and sale.'
The ice cream sold out within hours of its launch on February 25th though! But days after the ice cream went on sale it was taken out of sale, local health officials at Westminster City Council claimed sales were stopped and an investigation started because of two complaints (by men!) to which The Icecreamists' tweeted: "Ironic, eh?" (which personally, I think was brilliant!).
Despite the fact I think this is great I also think that in order for this almost 'sensationalized strategy' to work it needs to produce strong brand recognition and generate trustworthy customers for the long-term... I'm not sure they achieved that. It almost feels like a media/PR stunt which doesn't help the respect or credibility of our industry. What do you think...did they use a credible comms strategy?...
Danni Gardner said: (via Facebook)
ReplyDeleteEugh! Obviously breast is best (paediatrician and all!) - for ur baby (or donated for other babies), not ice cream for strangers! That's gross! And do they warn their customers about the potential risks of transmission of HIV/hepatitis etc before they sell it to them?
They tested it apparently... here I found this on TheIcecreamists blog:
ReplyDelete'Westminster Council have ’seized’ the remaining two scoops of ‘bio-hazardous’ breast milk ice cream on the basis that it might be a threat to public health in the full knowledge the milk was screened in a private clinic to the same exacting standards as blood and milk bank donors'
(They are fighting back against the backlash of negative coverage, hence bio-hazardous)
You and I think that's gross BUT they sold out in a couple of hours, so some people obviously like it?!?
Danni Gardner said:
ReplyDeleteI know it goes through the same processes as our milk and blood, but we all consider the risks of transmission of infection versus the need for it every time we use it and discuss it with all the parents of babies that we use donor milk for.
An...d surely people only bought it because it was a novelty and so they could say they had, not cos they actually wanted it?! Otherwise I might be slightly concerned about their state of mind :os
This is when the age year-old question "Is all publicity good publicity?" springs to mind. Everyone will know the name of The Icecreamists from now on and this shocking news story will stay with them forever. As a PR stunt, though, I think it was great. If your client agrees to something like this, then why not? It's creative and you know it's going to create a buzz. So if the objective was to raise awareness about the brand and increase some sales they definitely achieved it. I mean, it was all around Twitter, blogs and social media and, again, if the client agreed to it then this is the reputation they wish to have. So, you, as a PR agency delivered.
ReplyDeletewww.survivingpr.blogspot.com
Do you know that lady gaga is sueing the parlour as she feels that the shop ripped off her name for its own gain despite the fact that the ice cream has already been ordered off the shelves lol
ReplyDelete