PR Campaigns That “Made it”When The World Was at a Standstill

The Magenta Lilacs
4 min readOct 30, 2021

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In March 2020, the world experienced a pandemic outbreak called Corona Virus (COVID-19) This pandemic came as a flu, an acute respiratory illness with different symptoms and an extremely high transmission rate that could lead to severe symptoms and sometimes death in older people or patients with underlying conditions. The virus was first identified in Wuhan, China in 2019 and later was declared by the WHO a pandemic (WHO, 2020). The world had to completely quarantine as scientists and researchers tried to figure out what it was all about and how it could be prevented or mitigated.

As this was happening, everything went into a standstill, industries that we could never think of closed such as banks, airlines, all locked up their doors and people stayed in their homes, uncertain of the future for a period of close to two months and longer in some countries. Hospitals were flooded with cases of infected patients, excessive numbers of patients checked in as others passed, and hospitals even lacked equipment; and in some less developed countries, doctors were faced with very difficult decisions to make whereby they would have to decide who has more chances to survive and prioritize some patients over others.

What you do with two thirds of the world’s jets when they can’t fly (photo : Bloomberg)

Over the following months, after WHO declared Covid19 a pandemic and released a quarantine order, several decisions had to be made by governments, services and products had to be grouped into essential and non-essential services. So many people were laid off from their jobs, others had to move and adjust to operating online, while others completely had to close doors because they required a physical presence and yet nations could not afford to expose workers.

This naturally hasn’t left the hospitality and creative industry intact, in fact if anything they have been the most affected, especially in countries like Rwanda, European touristic places, and other tourism hubs. Services and businesses such as fast foods had to close, leaving the bunch employed by those organizations to completely be dependent on relatives who still made some sort of income, while governments also had to come up with ways to help the least privileged in their homes.

Outstanding Campaigns and The Genius Behind Them

  1. Burger King’s Buy from Mc Donald’s campaign

Founded in 1954 in Jacksonville, Burger King hamburger brand based in Florida has been a stellar competitor of famous brands such as McDonalds, KFC, Popey’s to name a few. The UK branch, managed by BBH (Bartle Bogle Hegarty) advertising company has been handling most of the unconventional yet engaging campaigns for the Burger King brand and never shies away from mentioning their competitors even when it comes off as trolls.

Burger King’s 2017 troll after Mc Donald’s engaged Ronald Mc Donald the clown as a brand ambassador

Burger King and Mc Donalds being rival franchises, the marketing strategy BBH used for years was that of creating thought-provoking and unconventional campaigns or ads for its client Burger king and had become notorious for that. During the Covid-19 outbreak though, the organization took a rather empathetic approach towards the rival company and completely took the audience aback and ‘got them in their feelings’. Burger King released a campaign encouraging people to buy from Mc Donalds and other companies in the industry such as KFC, Dominos’, Popey’s etc. Having been a stellar counterpart, this really demonstrated seasons such as a pandemic are a time for even rival companies in the same industries to rub shoulders and help each other.

Burger King’s ‘Order from Mc Donald’s campaign’

2. Emily Crisps Outdoor Campaign

Emily crisps, created by business woman Emily in 2014 is known for its vegan and fruity sophisticated snacks. The brand donates 1% of their gross revenue to organizations such as Women’s Earth Alliance to build global women-led grass root initiatives that have reached over 6 million people with environmental, climate and economic solutions. The vegan snack brand decided to buy outdoor space and soon after they had initiated the campaign, Covid-19 hit and the entire world was under lockdown, which ultimately meant the outdoor campaign was not going to be seen by anybody. The company took an interesting approach to make fun of their misfortune and turn the outdoor campaign into a comical story and guess what? It went viral on social media.

Emily Crisps Outdoor Campaign on empty street in London, 2020 (photo: grocer UK)

After taking the ‘make fun of yourself’ approach, Emily Crisp’s outdoor campaign gained exposure on social media and went viral, perhaps more than it could have been if people had been in the streets. Would you want to borrow a leaf from Emily’s genius tactic?

A pandemic, an earthquake, a lockdown, all these natural disasters perhaps won’t ever stop and the worst case is we can’t always be prepared for it. The question is to be sure, we always find a way to get back up from it. When all else fails, BE CREATIVE ! The creative mind is the one thing that is truly ours and cannot depart from us unless we really shut it down. Good PR & Marketing can keep your business running, even in the strangest of times.

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