In a recent commercial Party City made a mistake that will for sure live in PR infamy for the remainder of the company’s existence. They took a shot a people with Gluten allergies. #PartCityPartyfowl I’ve been waiting for this moment.
Let’s set the scene. The year is 2018 it’s time for the Superbowl, so party city wants to make an ad about their super bowl party merch… makes sense right? They’ll make a cute ad with little football bowls and streamers everything will be ok. Well here’s what happened instead.
In a since deleted video you see two women talking about the great snack spread and this conversation ensues…
“Those are some gluten-free options,” says one of the women in the commercial.
“Do we even know people that are like that?” responded the other woman.
“Tina,” the first woman responded.
“Oh, gross, yeah,” the second woman says. *quotes are from NBC4i.com*
So now here is everyone with celiac or a gluten allergy…
IT IS 2018! Everything is terrible and now we’re going to make fun of people with food allergies? As if it’s not hard enough already? I am all for being tough and not letting things get to you but this is absolutely ridiculous. How’d this even get through PR? Who approved this mess? Who thought this was a good idea? As a PR major I am shocked and appalled.
Here is Party City’s response…
“Party City takes our customers’ feedback and concerns 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 site and all other channels, and sincerely apologize for any offense this may have caused. 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. Again, we apologize for this error, and thank our customers for their feedback on the matter.”
Which is basically an auto-fill apology format. So here’s my Celiac having A**** response. Maybe if you want to have a successful business you don’t attack groups of people? Not sure that may just be my opinion.
It’ll be interesting to see what they do to fix this disaster they’ve created? Maybe a donation to the celiac foundation? Maybe a heartfelt apology would be better than a basic statement. The world may never know. If you think this is a joke then let Party City know but sharing this, @’ing them, writing letters. It’s 2018. Do better.
Sources:
Giphy.com