T-Mobile's Brilliant Kampaign

Say what you want about the Kardashian clan, but you can't deny that T-Mobile's recent campaign featuring family front man Kim Kardashian West is ingenious. If you haven't seen the commercial just yet, take a moment to check it out now. If you have seen it, watch it again because it's hilarious.

What worked best is that instead of attempting to mold her into a new character, they used her just as she comes. Let's face it, she's not an actress and probably wouldn't have been able to pull off a campaign like Rob Lowe's recent string of DirectTV commercials. She's also been criticized before for having a flat, and almost unapproachable, affect which T-Mobile used  to their advantage. By having Kim poke fun at herself, she not only became approachable and relatable, but funny too!

T-Mobile has also taken this commercial a step farther by creating an entire social media campaign around it. You can now visit kimsdatastash.com to connect with her on social media, view a lesson in how to take the perfect selfie and share your shameless snaps with an entire online community using #KimsDataStash. And let's not forget the whole purpose of all this: to promote T-Mobile's new rollover data policy so that you can share all the selfies you want! Brilliant.

This post was written by Assistant Firm Director, Jordan Washington. Follow her on Twitter here.

Girl Unrelated to #BringBackOurGirls Made the Face of the Campaign

Recently, a social media campaign called "Bring Our Girls Back" has erupted in response to the kidnapping of 276 Nigerian girls by terrorist group Boko Haram. Several photos of citizens and celebrities alike have surfaced with them holding up a sign with the slogan in an effort to raise awareness and gain the support of government. In the past few weeks, the campaign has been very successful, reaching the ranks of First Lady Michelle Obama.

Unfortunately an issue has recently surfaced related to the most circulated photo of the campaign which features a girl that is neither kidnapped nor Nigerian. The photo is actually of Jenabu Balde, a girl from Guinea-Bissau on Africa’s western coast. It was found on the Alexia Foundation website, a photojournalism organization. 

The photographer, Ami Vitale, has since issued a statement saying, “I support the campaign completely, and I would do anything to bring attention to the situation. It’s a beautiful campaign that shows the power of social media. This is a separate issue....This is about misrepresentation.” Emmanuel Hephzibah, the Nigerian man responsible for photoshopping the photograph and adding the hashtag, says he meant no harm claiming, “I was crying out so that our voice could be heard in Nigeria, because it seems our government was not ready to take any action. I credited the source of the image as AlexiaFoundation.org.” 

Though Hephzibah has been asked to take down the photo, the image has already gone viral in association with this campaign and is impossible to remove completely. Unfortunately for Balde, she will also be associated with this campaign for a long time as the face of a terrible, ongoing crisis. 

Source: PR Daily

Pink Slime Makes People See Red

A couple weeks ago, a viral social media campaign was launched featuring an ammonia-treated meat additive in the form of pink slime. Used

as a filler for meats used in fast-food restaurants, grocery stores, and even school lunches, the use of pink slime allows meat to be produced cheaper than those without the additive. However, many customers are upset that the FDA would allow this to go on for so long, without making it known to people.

Soon after news of the slime broke, a Change.org petition was created and has garnered over 250,000 signatures to stop its use in public schools. Many large grocery stores such as Wal-Mart and Kroger have since stopped selling meat products without the additive. Kroger even released a statement, saying:

“We have listened to your concerns that the use of lean finely textured beef—while fully approved by the USDA for safety and quality—is something you do not want in ground beef. You are our top priority and for that reason we have decided to stop purchasing ground beef that contains lean finely textured beef.”

Since the social media rampage, the Beef Products, Inc., makers of 'pink slime' have since fired back. They created beefisbeef.com, in which they fire back at naysayers of pink slime. Beef Products post various news articles debunking the myth that pink slime is not healthy. They also created a graphic, shown below, that weighs the nutritional value of pink slime. “We produce 100 percent quality lean beef. That’s it. That whole thing is a farce. There’s no substance to it,” said Beef Products’ Craig Letch to the Chicago Tribune.

As opposed to other companies shying away from confronting critics, Beef Products has done no such thing. Although the Beef Products brand will be significantly tarnished, they did the right thing by pulling out stats, representatives, and credible resources to back their side of their story.

How do you think Beef Products handled its critics? Would you still buy meat products with the ammonia-treated filler in it? Let us know!