Good and Bad PR

How Not To Sell Toys

by Kristi

Branding Masterminds

As the creators of family favorites such as Barbie, G.I. Joe and Playskool, Hasbro and Mattel have been time honored traditions in households for decades. Generations have relied on their board games, dolls and action figures for wholesome entrainment, but more importantly they have consistently revolutionized leisure in society.

But often people forget that Mattel and Hasbro were also the toy creators that responsible for distributing over 19 million poisonous toys and suing students for using Barbie dolls in their school art projects. So when exactly does bad publicity sour?

Missed Opportunity

As the sales of board games continue to plummet, Hasbro and Mattel should be looking for opportunities to expand their reach to Generation Y. Instead the pair has teamed up to sue the creators of Scrabulous, one of Facebook’s most popular applications. Scrabulous is an electronic version of Scrabble and attracts more than 850,000 downloads, according to Wikipedia, and nets the designers more than $25,000 worth of advertising a month.

Over 55,000 fans have begun boycotting the prospect of losing the application in the form of a Save Scrabulous Facebook Group.

Where They Went Wrong

What could have been a great opportunity to capitalize on a growing buzz about the Scrabble legacy, the two companies have instead turned their target public – parents and potential consumers – into criminals and remind people of the negative attention they continue to generate for themselves.

Why not settle with the small-time designers for little to nothing and use the application to reinforce the brand that once stood for togetherness and fun? Or send applications users a coupon and encourage them to purchase the PC version of Scrabble or even the hand-held console?

It seems that the companies may be on their way to a bad image and have missed a great opportunity to use the fastest growing social media outlet to its advantage.

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Public Relations for the N.C. Department of Transportation (NCDOT) U.S. 1/64

MMI Associates was contracted to handle media relations and to organize various efforts to open the communication lines between the construction entities on the project and motorists. The firm developed a strategic public relations campaign to ensure that local motorists and those passing through would be aware of the most up-to-date traffic patterns.