Creative Tips for Talking about the Unmentionable
When’s the last time you spoke to your next-door neighbor about your itching problem—down there? Or your thinning hair? Or your use of feminine hygiene products? Or incontinence?
Today, it often seems like nothing is taboo. People visit websites to confess their deepest darkest secrets, television shows seem to break new bounds every year in the topics they treat, and political dignitaries on both sides of the aisle become embroiled in scandals that leave little to the imagination. Still, let’s face it, some topics remain difficult to discuss—for marketers as well as individuals.
The routine handling of sensitive topics by public relations firms is interesting and important because it demonstrates the creative nature of our business. Certain accounts can summon special marketing savvy.
The question becomes: How to frame communications for such accounts? What are the best practices? Here are some points to consider, offered up by three PR pros with experience in this area, Euro RSCG Worldwide PR’s Marian Salzman, Spectrum’s John Seng, and Marina Maher from Marina Maher Communications.
- Understand your target: It’s always a good idea to get inside the target’s head, but never more
so than when you’re talking about a subject like body odor, incontinence, or what’s on top of that head—thinning hair. As Maher notes, “there is a delicate balance between what target consumers respond to and what makes them run in the other direction – or worse, ridicule you. Marketers must listen carefully – via qualitative research like focus groups, observational and ethnographic research – to uncover insights that activate consumers.” - Speak confidently: Don’t let embarrassment stymie you. Tackle the subject head on. Seng notes that in the health and life science space
especially, “companies should expect and plan for the “tee hee, ha ha” reaction, and actually leverage it. But we quickly get into the clinical need and keep it all about the nature of the disorder or need, both in strict scientific terms but also incorporating the human element. You put faces of real people on it. You knock out the popular culture or myths and get very serious, and soon enough, the embarrassment’s gone.” - Humor, humor, humor: Don’t get too serious. Have fun! As Salzman
relates, “Axe is a great example of a brand that uses sex in a cheeky way to sell body spray for men. In Canada, it did a fabulous campaign incorporating environmental issues with getting clean—it riffed on the water shortage, a serious target, by inviting people to shower together. Cheeky, yes, but it’s clever enough to not be offensive and make the brand provocative, yet cool and timely.” - Invent new terms: Sometimes getting the messaging right involves creating new ways to talk about a condition. Maher cites Kimberly-Clark’s Poise pads, whose campaign changed the shameful sounding term “incontinence” to something more consumer friendly: “Light bladder leakage.” The Poise spokesperson made it even more mainstream by dubbing it “the spritz.”
- Set realistic expectations: Consumers might dispense more often with taboos, but traditional media can still pose a challenge to brands seeking to talk about sensitive topics. Seng observes that “with difficult subjects, companies need to accept that it’s a steeper slope. They need to dedicate greater resources to enable their communicators to get more creative, to persist where others would quit, and to spend more on controlled-message media in order to get the word across. Adopting aggressive social media strategies is a way to break the taboo molds and push the story beyond.”
- Always use good taste: Salzman reflects that “the brands that do best defuse the bomb or remove the elephant in the room and simply tell the truth and say what all our psyches are already thinking—and don’t alienate potential consumers by hiding behind stereotypes or the tried and true.” They also refrain from going too far. Salzman cites an ad created in Switzerland for a tampon maker that showed a vampire with big fangs. “The copy read ‘Very absorbent.’ True, vampires are all the rage, but really? Apparently the ad never ran, but women who saw it were not amused. Clearly it was off-strategy in terms of its humor attempt.”
Although brands sometimes stumble, it is possible to speak intelligently—and effectively—about difficult subjects. Talking about these products with consumers can prove an interesting and fulfilling creative challenge. Can you think of any campaigns relating to sensitive topics that really hit the mark? Know of any other best practices we might have missed? Tell us about it!
A former client of ours is a sex therapist who wanted to make talks about the subject to broaden his client base as he had just moved here from another city. He went through training with a national group, and felt very comfortable talking about something very private. He handled the audiences very well, added some humor, and had lots of questions afterward. We wanted to do research on the subject, but we didn’t want to do search on our computers because it might bring a lot of sex sites. Luckily, he educated us about problems with too much porn and sex addiction (mostly men.) May take a year to get rid of their addictions. Interesting client.