The rush by marketing and PR agencies to ensure their brands are linked to the latest crazes – regardless of actual relevance – has always left me cold.

This weekend, everyone – and I mean everyone – is talking about Fifty Shades of Grey. Dubious sexual politics of the film aside (the borderline rape/emotionally abusive relationship theme is ok because it was written by a woman, apparently), why does every PR department in the country feel the need to talk about it?

Well, ok, ‘because it works’, I guess is the short answer. The news this week has been full of various brands, clamouring to link themselves to the Fifty Shades coverage.

I remember when Power Rangers first came out, and there were concerns that it would make kids attempt to copy the martial arts moves, hurting themselves and each other in the process. Kids are impressionable and copy whatever they see on TV, it was claimed.

Well, adults are no better, it seems. One glimpse of a Fifty Shades poster is enough to make everyone scurry off home to engage in some semi-consensual sex.

A cursory glance at the news this week has seen the fire service predicting there’ll be more call-outs as a result of handcuff-related incidents going wrong. This isn’t a ‘funny story’ – the fire brigade are calling you all randy morons, incapable of not losing a set of keys in your throes of passion.

B&Q, meanwhile, says it is expecting to sell out of cable ties, and anything else you could tie a wrist to a bedpost with. Is that really appropriate behaviour for that brand? (They since blamed an excitable PR agency, but I doubt anything was issued without approval there.)

Elsewhere, a cinema chain, in a remarkable example of plumbing the depths of decency, says it is pre-emptively covering its seats with plastic. Eww.

Like the book/film itself, it’s all a bit murky. I love it when brands show they have a sense of humour – as Vauxhall did recently – but brands that show they can jump on a bandwagon whilst cheapening themselves? Not for me.

I shall be buying my cable ties (for the express purpose of tying cables) elsewhere from now on, thanks very much.

For PR advice that’s both creative but also sensitive to a brand’s reputation, you know where we are.

Back