The RIPeanut campaign was initially created to honor a pop-culture icon and bring unity amongst the audience for that reason. However, as the world changes their views and beliefs may change as well. With the death of future Hall of Famer, Kobe Bryant and his daughter, “GiGi” circling every social media platform and touching so many hearts, it’s a very touchy subject to execute. As a Planter’s PR professional I would not continue to run the campaign and would respond to all the negative comments with a sincere apology, a reminder of what the campaign was initially created for, and give reassurance that it will not be ran due to the tragedy of the Bryant’s family. That way I would have identified the problem, determined the cause of the problem, and finally solved it.
Considering the fact that Planter is such a well known figure, his potential audience could literally be anyone but, if its geared towards Kobe Bryant than it would definitely be basketball fans and more specifically the Lakers’ fans on that important night. With so much emotional response to Bryant’s death even shown on social media, I do not feel like this would benefit the relationship between Planters and their intended audience. A lot of people will be very sensitive to the topic. With my background information in Public Relations, I know it is very important to be cautious when dealing with certain topics and I don’t believe that they should risk their reputation by doing this.
Link to photo: https://www.whec.com/news/report-kobe-bryant-dies-in-helicopter-crash/5623770/
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