One would think it’s obvious that including serial murderers in a social media branding campaign isn’t a great idea.

However, that’s exactly what happened with a recent Walkers Crisps (think Lay’s potato chips in the UK) Twitter campaign.

Walkers encouraged its Twitter followers to upload selfies, which were automatically imported into an entertaining video. Unfortunately, the automated conversion was done without any review process. Without any moderation in place, promotion participants could upload practically any image. Naturally, contestants quickly noticed the lack of vetting, and uploaded all sorts of disallowed images, including photos of notorious criminals, cretins, and murderers. If Walkers was our client, would we have been able to protect them from this massive misstep? Well, sure.

When we help administer social media promotions for our clients, we blend decades of experience with full stack development to prevent public relations disasters. For example, one tactic we employ is a real-time customizable moderation gallery that, when combined with in-house human review of every single image, ensures the audience views only positive, suitable, and appropriate images and text.

Are you planning to harness the power of social media, but would prefer to avoid the stigma of highlighting infamous felons? We can help – zip us a note or give us a ring to get started.