You can’t satisfy everyone. If you take a side, you will always find yourself opposite of someone else. Brands are often wary of taking sides on any political or social issues in order to not offend and lose any current or potential customers. But those fear didn’t stop the people at Frito-Lay, who offered a new line of Doritos, Doritos Rainbows, in support with the It Gets Better campaign. The campaign is designed to help prevent suicide amongst LGBT teens.
But like I said, you can’t satisfy everyone. There were plenty of idiots on social media who felt their “freedom” was being infringed on, and took to social media to boycott. However, Doritos would not let the vocal minority dictate the narrative. Doritos’ social media team fired back.
First, they presented facts:
Then, they appealed to reason:
Soon, they resorted to lampooning the boycotters:
And finally, they defused an erroneous comment with topical humor:
While Doritos has usually branded itself in conjunction with Call of Duty and the NFL, this move to support LGBT youth and suicide prevention came from left field. But that’s great! This campaign was fresh, creative, and unexpected. As I’ve said before in past posts, brands taking stands, while controversial, will grab attention. So all of you marketers need to take notice and get your brand active in social commentary.