When a global marketing blunder is a local problem
Sometimes I wonder if being a brand with an international affiliation is more trouble than it’s worth.
Jenny Craig – a weight control brand that’s doing very well in Australia, thanks very much – is the latest to face blowback from an international gaffe.
Locally, the adoption of Magda Szubanski as the face of the brand was a big success last year, particularly with the associated PR. The Jen4Men campaign seems to be going well too.
But the row with Weight Watchers – which has seen a Jenny Craig ad forced off the air in the US for making apparently unsubstantiated claims of being more effective than its rival has done it no favours. By the looks of it, local Australian TV news is going to give it a run tonight.
It reminds me a bit of the Domino’s disaster – where staff at a US store’s misdemeanours reverberated around the world.
Sometimes globalisation isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Tim Burrowes
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
Linkedin