The Social Media Flame That Burnt FORVR MOOD
Social media is a double edge sword. It can help or damage your brand in a matter of seconds, the trick is on how it’s handled.
The case of Jackie Aina and her candle brand FORVR MOOD is a great example of how social media can help build your brand and destroy it if you let it. But before we explore the sharpest tools in the marketing box (social media and PR), it’s important to understand who Jackie Aina is.
Jackie Aina is a Nigerian-American social media influencer who uses multiple social media platforms to share and advocate for people of color who are not represented in the beauty industry. Jackie started her YouTube channel in 2006, and since then her following has increased to a current 3.55M subscribers. Jackie shares her favorite beauty products, fashion tips, and tricks through her social media accounts. Her love for fragrances and all things beauty inspired her to launch FORVR MOOD in 2020 with her business partner Denis Asamoah.
FORVR MOOD is a candle and fragrance company. On their website the brand is promoted as “Boujie on a budget”, and “LUXE Made affordable”. As mentioned before Jackie wants to promote inclusivity for Black women in the beauty industry. She shared on the brand’s website:
“As Black women, we’re used to being called strong. At FORVR Mood, we’re changing the narrative. Black women deserve more than perseverance and strength. Black women don’t always have to be strong. Black women deserve self-care. Black women deserve luxury. Black women deserve to be spoiled. Black women deserve.”
Fast-forward to FORVR MOOD’s 2022 fall collection “OWAMBE”, which was supposed to be an homage to Jackie’s Nigerian background. It turned out to be the complete opposite. The social media crisis started with the name of one of the candles in the collection labeled “Sòrò Sókè”. If you are not familiar, “Sòrò Sókè” is a Yoruba phrase used in 2017 during the #EndSars movement, and it translates to “speak up” or “speak louder”.
The name of the candle is not only insensitive, but it shows how out of touch the brand and Jackie (by proxy) are with what’s going on around her and in her community. She was called out by her followers for two reasons:
First, due to the historical meaning of the phrase holds. #EndSARS is a social movement against police brutality in Nigeria. It stands for ending the Special Anti-Robbery Squad. You can learn more about it here.
Second, during the social unrest followers had asked Jackie to use her voice on social platforms to help raise awareness of the injustice Nigerians were experiencing. Jackie did not comment about the movement and went a step further to block those followers asking her to speak up. Jackie said she didn’t want to be seen as the “voice of the people”.
The crisis could have been easily avoided with research, a quick “what does Sòrò Sókè mean?” search on Google would have saved the brand millions. I remember my intern days when I was tasked to do research for hours, which sometimes led to interesting findings and other times didn’t lead to anything. As consumers, we hold brands and influencers to higher standards because now we have access to information at our fingertips. There is no space on the internet now for insensitivity or “lack of knowledge”.
It was the brand’s fault, but it landed on Jackie as the owner and co-founder. Could it be that she didn’t receive the list of the names for her new collection? Did she miss it? Who approved it? We can sit here and speculate as much as we want on how it was missed. But now that the damage is done it’s all about moving forward and resolving the crisis. Making it up to those affected, and to the millions of followers of the brand and influencer.
The crisis was managed like every other influencer’s apology. Through an apologetic post on her personal Instagram account, and the brand’s account. The same post was used on both accounts, it was not curated to differentiate the brand from the owner. The crisis was poorly managed via social media. The day after posting the apology, it was back to regular programming on FORVR MOOD’s account, and it could have been that these posts were already scheduled. However, that is not an excuse, the brand must have a crisis communication strategy in place. The least they could have done was stop any scheduled posts. At last, the product was pulled from the website and retailers.
Unsure about your current social media crisis communication strategy? This article might help.
