What Brands Need to Know About Issues Hijacking

It all started with a sad monkey.

Punch the monkey is a macaque housed at Japan’s Ichikawa Zoo. Poor little Punch had trouble fitting in. This February, rejected, hurt, and alone, he turned to his one and only friend for comfort: a stuffed orangutan toy provided by his keepers. 

As you probably know, the news went viral. And it’s easy to see why. The story, which is essentially about social ostracism, is very relatable. We feel empathy for Punch’s no-doubt precarious mental state. Indeed, many posters on social media claimed their own mental health rested on whether Punch would be accepted by his troop. 

Our sad little Monkey opened up space to talk about themes of loneliness, empathy, belonging and attachment, important topics that affect many of us every day. From a comms perspective, this story provided a good opportunity to talk about why people identified so deeply with Punch’s troubles. 

We  teamed up with our client Rula, a company that provides affordable online therapy, to turn this viral, emotional story into a PR moment that required no additional budget, and helped us plug the brand into mainstream conversations around mental health.

What is the secret to a successful news hijack?

Rula’s outreach worked because it was relevant, timely, and authentic. When these qualities are absent, issues hijacks can all too often go wrong. 

How can brands avoid a hijack backlash?

Take the case of Burger King UK as a warning. The company attempted to jump on International Women’s Day by drawing attention to the fact that women are underrepresented in the restaurant industry. That’s all well and good (especially as the company was offering a tailored apprenticeship program), but Burger King lost it in the execution. Its tweet (this was back when tweets were still tweets) that “women belong in the kitchen” instantly misfired.

When talking about big issues, news hijacks must be treated with kid gloves. Brands shouldn’t be scared of them, but they do need to think before pushing send on that media comment or social post. Here are my three tips for avoiding unintended backlash:

1. Stress-test your ideas. Get as many team members from as many demographics as possible to stress-test your idea. This needn’t take long: just 15 minutes of worst-case scenario planning can usually tell you if there’s a danger your idea will cause offense.
2. Ask for local advice. If you’re targeting media in more than one country, it’s vital to get feedback from local advisors. Messages can easily be lost in translation, and unless you’re aware of every potential faux pas in every country you’re targeting, then you’ll need help.
3. Be authentic. I cannot stress this enough. Brands most often get in trouble when they don’t appear to have anything meaningful to add to a conversation. Issues hijacking isn’t mere opportunism. It’s the art of using the news agenda to share truly helpful information. 

As always, the SourceCode team is here to help if you want to talk through this topic in more detail – just get in touch.

And if you were wondering, Punch’s story has a happy ending. By all accounts, the little guy has been accepted by his troop and he’s living a much happier life (although his favorite toy orangutan still gets a little cuddle from time to time, and who could blame him?).