VEGE-WHOOPS! ANOTHER PR FAIL FOR KRAFT
Words: Luke Buckmaster
Given Australia’s favourite toast spread maintains a massive monopoly in the industry of concentrated yeast extracts, the board members and stock holders of a certain American-owned (ssshhh) company may remain happy little Vegemites — but today another PR bungle suggested they might not be as bright as bright can be. This time, however, it may not have been their fault.
Two and a bit years after Kraft introduced the debacle that was iSnack 2.0 — the web-based name-our-product initiative that lasted five days before being turfed into the dumpster diving bin and replaced with something eminently more sensible sounding — along comes a fresh debacle for the rosy-cheeked folk at Vegemite.
Today Kraft announced another brand rename; this one, unlike the former, to be intentionally ‘for-a-limited-time-only’. The company declared it will honour Australia Day 2012 by renaming Vegemite to — wait for it — ‘Australia.’
Attempting to encapsulate the national ethos in a small jar with a yellow lid is a move of Baz Luhrmann-like grandstanding arguably deserving of kudos simply for its king-of-the-mountain chutzpah. But when News.com.au came along to take some happy snaps to accompany this story, things took a turn for the worse.
The photograph published on News.com.au showed a young woman who didn’t stop at splashing Vegemite on her cheeks — for some intangible reason she smeared it all over her sunny countenance. The result: the familiar it’s-never-OK-so-just-don’t-do-it faux pas known as the blackface, which has a rich history in good ol’ fashioned family racism. Here’s the photograph:
Outraged readers vented their spleen on Twitter, the world’s ultimate bedrock for 140 character outrage. The many responses (both “Vegemite” and “blackface” became trending topics) included the following vitriolic sprays:
@_robcorr: Kraft’s Vegemite blackface publicity photo is as bad as it sounds
@BrigadierSlog: IF that was the ad, unaltered, its ridiculously stupid and offensive
@kissability: On Australia Day I am going to eat jars of “Australia” then vomit black on anyone who is celebrating our racist colony
@monkeh: In honour of Vegemite’s BRILLIANT marketing strategy, the scraggly mess that’s halfway between a ratstail & a mullet is now a Vegemite.
@mikestuchbery: Vegemite blackface? Kraft, go fire your creative team.
@amitimlee: Vegemite rebranding itself ‘Australia’next PR idea: smother over face while performing indigenous music #VegeBlackFace
@mrgrumpystephen: Vegemite should just bite the bullet and rebadge as “Black Shit”
@Akirascuro: Dear Vegemite marketing dept: you’re insane.
@ElPrezAU: Dear @vegemite_kraft, are you not paying attention? Blackface is not funny or cute, it is offensive.
The offending photograph was subsequently changed on every News Limited syndicated site other than Perth Now (Perth can be — sorry, WA brethren – slightly behind the eight ball at the best of times) within minutes to this:
The Twitterverse were howling for yeast-infused blood, but perhaps some were a little too quick to point the finger. A spokesperson for Kraft spoke to Spook Magazine early this evening and Vegemite’s official line is the following: Kraft did not ask for the offending photograph to be taken and nor did it ask for the photograph to be removed.
If that’s the case, Kraft’s beleaguered marketing department have good reason to feel more than a little cross with whoever came up with the idea and convinced the person in the photograph – Australian women’s lacrosse coach Trish Adams – to go ahead with it. Harry Connick Jr, as we all know, would not approve.
Take a breather, folks, and remember the good old times:
