Beverage Brands is in the doghouse right now.

In what must be one of the most misjudged advertising pushes of recent times, the company has attempted to reach out to Brits during the season of goodwill by suggesting that buying a bottle of its WKD was a better use of a few quid than supporting an animal welfare charity.

Big mistake.

Did they not run the ad past a focus group and, if they did, who was on it? Cruella de Vil?

We Brits love our animals more than we love our mothers - as WKD learned all too quickly.

Outraged consumers have bombarded the WKD Facebook page and Twitter, with some claiming they will never buy the brand again, and others making the suggestion that the brand’s marketeers should spend some time - or money - looking after animals. (Don’t dismiss the last one, WKD, that’s a PR opportunity.)

Animal welfare organisations have also joined the attack, with the RSPCA stating: “While it is obvious that the WKD brand relies on tongue-in-cheek advertising, we feel this particular campaign does a disservice to the thousands of animals that are abandoned across the country every year and are in desperate need of a new home.”

In fairness to Beverage Brands, it reacted swiftly to the complaints, is pulling down the posters and will make a donation to the RSPCA.

We’ll even throw the company a bone - of sorts.

The Grocer’s editorial team may not be a shining example of right-thinking individuals, but many of us felt WKD’s ‘joke’ was kind of funny. Or it would have been, had it been told by a stand-up comic late at night in a club. Not displayed in bus shelters nationwide by Britain’s number one off-trade RTD brand.

As of now (3pm on 13 December) the national media don’t appear to have caught whiff of what’s gone on.

But if they do, things could get even hairier for Beverage Brands.

Topics