430 PR Case Studies – These are conclusions made from research done throughout the 2020 fall

semester on 4 different case studies, and the important public relations to take from them.

H&M hoodie

This case was about when H&M released a new hoodie in 2018 modeled by an African

American boy. The words on the sweatshirt read “coolest monkey in the jungle.” It took the

internet by storm and went viral, especially on twitter where multiple celebrities even called the

brand out for the offensive ad. Famous pop singer The Weeknd backed out of a partnership with

the company as well. After seeing the backlash, H&M released an apology and pulled the hoodie

from all of their stores and websites. This whole incident allowed for other things wrong with the

company to be thrusted into the public eye as well, and people were quick to find many other

instances of racial insensitivity and cultural appropriation.

- Principles taken from this case:

o A lack of diversity in the decision room results in lack of diversity in the company

as a whole

o Watch out for enemies with power – the Weeknd and other celebrities who

disassociated themselves with the brand influence the way the company is seen

o Don’t make empty apologies – H&M came out with their first short apology and

it didn’t to anything for them. They later released an apology that addressed the

three R’s. they should have made the apology sincere from the beginning

Kmart “ship my pants”

 In this case, Kmart tried to rebrand themselves with an ad that used a play on words. “Shipped

my pants” was a huge success for the company and took the internet by storm. The brand had

been considered a more conservative brand, so this was an out of the box idea that turned a lot of

heads. They monitored the public’s reaction by releasing the ad via internet and YouTube before

airing it on television as a commercial. They wanted to make sure it got a generally positive

reaction, which it did. There were some critics, but Kmart did a good job overall with monitoring

the comments and keeping the comment sections online lighthearted. After this release, they

came out with another campaign using a similar play on words. The saying this time was,

“Sounds like you could use some big gas savings.”

- Principles taken from this case:

o Rebranding - they rebranded themselves with this ad campaign from their

previous more conservative look

o Staying on the agenda – they stayed relevant on social media with this ad.

Everyone was talking about it, and #shippedmypants was a hit.

o Taking risks – taking a risk can either make you or break you. Kmart did it and it

payed off for them at the time

o Look for pattern in data – the first campaign went so well they decided to do

another one

o Quick response and controlled the narrative– when a lady on Facebook said she

didn’t like the ad, Kmart responded quickly and controlled the narrative by both

apologizing and making light of the situation. They thought it was fun, and their

response wasn’t rude but rather lighthearted.

Reinventing cranberries

This case was about how the Cranberry Marketing Committee rebranded cranberries to

increase their sales. They utilized social media platforms and advertised that this food could be

used in a variety of different and nontraditional ways for Friendsgiving. People began using

#friendsgivingcranberrycontest to enter their unique cranberry creations into different contests to

win cash prizes. The contest was designed to bring the use of cranberries to a new target

audience by pairing it with Friendsgiving. It was also easy for people to do and promoted the

contest by taking advantage of the fact that many social media outlets rely heavily on visuals.

The official website for US Cranberries currently has an archive up of past winners, contest

announcements, and lots of photos of the food.

- Principles taken from this case:

o Agenda setting - cranberries are tied to Thanksgiving; Thanksgiving is on the

agenda because it is a major holiday

o need for affiliation – it took off on social media, and once someone posted about

it others wanted to join in and be a part of it

o need and read – knew their younger audience was tech savy and into posting food

pictures to social media. They also knew that Friendsgiving is ridiculously

popular

o Grunigs theory – action was easy to take – taking pictures and uploading them to

enter the contest was easy

o Visuals stick in the mind - pictures of the cranberries used in foods, drinks,

holiday décor such as wreaths and centerpieces, candy and desserts

U2 album automatic upload

Apple users were left confused and angry when they found out that U2’s new album was

automatically download it to their device. It was part of a $500 million-dollar partnership

between the band and Apple at Apples release of the iPhone 6 and Apple watch. People took to

Twitter to write about it, mostly complaining that they never allowed for it to be there, but it

suddenly appeared. This didn’t make Apple or U2 look good. Apple was out of touch with what

they thought users would like because the band U2 was an old band with no current relevance. It

was received so badly that Apple had to make instructions on how users could remove it from

their phones.

- Principles taken from this case:

o Framing – U2 and Bono in particular framed it as “we are giving away a free

album, it is a gift”

o Grunig theory – people will only take action if action is easy to take… the action

of removing the album wasn’t easy. It was easier and more convenient for people

to tweet about it then it was to remove the album. People took that action instead

and it made the apple and U2 look bad.

o Do your research/not on brand – Apple didn’t do their research on how outdated

U2 was, this is unlike them

o Agenda setting – this got both U2 and Apple on the agenda in a bad way