News: Celiac.com: Party City commercial angers families affected by celiac disease

[Scott Adams]

The gluten-free blog 'Gluten Dude' shared a clip of the commercial Monday afternoon along with a lengthy post decrying its effect on people living with celiac disease. “The commercial has been spreading through our awesome community today. So much so that Party City has removed the video from ...

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[Awol cast iron stomach]

So PC is not celiac pc?

I'm sure fictitious  "Tina" in the ad will discard her "immature anti celiac ad friends" like used napkins and find new friends that are less grossed out by her autoimmune disease. 

Or perhaps fictitious "Tina " will patiently educate the baffon friends in the ad. Tina's choice.

Another company made a bad choice to join the gluten dude list of celiac bashing in the public media 

Hey PC want to attempt to get out of dog house ?

contact me for where to send my check For your next marketing idea/ script for your commercial 

Your next commercial show two tables one designated gluten-free and one non gluten-free

show 2 different color coded themes one gluten-free and non gluten-free example red for gluten-free and black non gluten-free ( whatever game day team colors- catch my drift) showing gluten-free cake served on red plate and non gluten-free cake on other table on black plate. Yo support celiac awareness and safety.

this marketing tip per AWOL  contact me for my royalty checks 

?

 

[kareng]

The thing is.  They didn't have to say anything about gluten free food.  They didn't have to put that mean-spirited dig in there at all.  They could have just showed the awesome thing for serving food.  People with food sensitivities would have just substituted gluten-free or peanut free food in their minds.  Just like anyone would have said - I hate cucumbers - so my party tray won't have that on it.

[Jmg]

This is on their FB page:

Quote

Party City values its customers above all else, and we take your feedback extremely seriously. We recognize that we made an error in judgment by running the recent Big Game commercial, which was insensitive to people with food allergies. We have removed the commercial from our website and all other channels, and sincerely apologize for any offense this may have caused. We’d also like to clarify that Sunny Anderson was not involved in the creation of this commercial in any way, and we apologize for any offense it has caused with her audience and fans. We will also be reviewing our internal vetting process on all advertising content to avoid any future issues. In addition, Party City will be making a donation in support of Celiac Disease research.

 

1 hour ago, kareng said:

The thing is.  They didn't have to say anything about gluten free food.  They didn't have to put that mean-spirited dig in there at all.  They could have just showed the awesome thing for serving food

Indeed. 

My take - their ad agency / internal marketing is looking to create 'edgy' content which they calculated would play well with sports fans. They probably have a lamentable brand values document which they're trying to align their messaging on and this crass 'joke' and the embarassing climb down and pushback from their sponsored celebrity is the result. By rights the head of marketing or whoeever at senior level signed off on this should be feeling very vulnerable today, because anyone who understands marketing* should've quickly spotted that this was liable to blow up in their faces.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*Note that lots of people pretend to, but just look at some of the crappy campaigns that get the green light...