Virgin Australia says ‘we’ve been punked enough by 2020′, and gives away toilet rolls for April Fools’ Day
Embattled airline Virgin Australia has called off its annual April Fools’ Day prank, saying “we’ve decided that this year, we’ve all been punked enough by 2020”.
Instead, the travel brand will “rescue” thousands of toilet paper rolls from 125 of its grounded aircraft fleet and storage facilities, and donate them to vulnerable members of the community via charity and community partners.
“On a day when the world usually anticipates what April Fools’ tricks brands might play, we couldn’t be happier to not be punking anyone today and spreading some toilet paper goodness to those who need it most,” Virgin Australia general manager of product and customer, Sarah Adam said.
When your brand has to lay off the majority of its workforce and ask the government for nearly $2bn in a bailout, it is probably not the time to do any sort of ‘we’re extending a helping hand’ comms (even if the intention was good), sounds like a marketing department that is sadly trying to stay relevant and in a job, rather than one that is doing what is right for the brand which at this time would to be bitting its tongue.
Politely disagree. This is not what I would consider traditional news-jacking….this shows the resilience of an airline in trouble and the staff who’ve been stood down or now officially out of work. Every person in that video is now unemployed, yet they’ve still banded together for community outreach. Will they get positive PR from it? Of course. But so they should. They’re doing a great thing for the community when they didn’t have to and when they have bigger troubles to think about. It would be great to see other companies do the same.
A brand needs to keep communicating. This may not be perfect. But it is something. They will land the right tone eventually.
I’d say the marketing team are doing a fantastic job, evidenced by the thousands of likes, comments and shares across Virgin’s social media channels in support of this initiative.
We’re a foreign owned company who have stood down our staff and are begging for a bailout by Australian taxpayers.
So let’s do this piece of puff.
Has anyone else cashed out their Velocity points?