Handmade cosmetic retailer Lush came under fire for its #SpyCop campaign, designed to bring attention to a Public Inquiry into Undercover Policing. Should more brands take a stand on society's issues?
On 1st June Lush joined with campaign group Police Spies out of Lives to launch an awareness raising campaign called #SpyCops.
The goal of the campaign was to place pressure on Home Secretary Sajid David to accelerate an ongoing Undercover Policing Inquiry. It included visuals of police officers with the words “Paid to lie” across its storefronts, accompanied by incident tape saying “Police have crossed the line.”
Bathing in controversy
Although Lush’s intention was to support activist victims who were spied upon by undercover police officers and who still can’t access the data held on them despite the inquiry, reaction to the campaign in the immediate aftermath was largely negative.
Some Lush shops even took down the displays due to “in-store intimidation”.
A key issue was its creative execution according to Jo-ann Robertson, CEO, Ketchum London. “Whilst I admire big business taking a stand on important controversial issues, the execution of these campaigns is absolutely critical,” she said.
“In my opinion, Lush got this campaign all wrong. It appeared to attack the entire British police force, rather than the small division that behaved inappropriately.
“Marketeers put Lush staff in a very compromising position. Trust in the police has never been higher and I think this showed a lack of judgement.”
Retail consultant and high street champion Graham Soult agrees. “The stark and aggressive straplines and imagery caused immediate offence, while largely failing to get across the intended message.” Soult believes the lobbying element was less of the problem.
“Lush has always had a reputation for being a campaigning, and sometimes controversial, retailer. It’s hard to argue with the case for drawing public attention to the ongoing, but seemingly stuttering, public enquiry into past undercover policing units, where women formed intimate relationships with me who turn out to be police spies’. “However, where a marketing campaign goes so wrong that it requires the company to issue a lengthy statement explaining what it was trying to achieve, it may be time to cut your losses and admit defeat,” he said.
Soult was right about the lobbying element. But while the campaign was curtailed on 17th June due to the overall reaction, data shows Lush sales were up 13%.
According to social analysts Brandwatch, positive mentions climbed alongside negative ones throughout the campaign. By 9th June it was back to business as usual with sentiment back to Lush’s average of over 80% positive.
Is it time for brands to do more?
In the face of political turbulence and years of austerity, and at a time when public trust in business, government, NGOs, and the media is at an all-time low, there is a growing recognition that organisations need to do more to contribute to society to secure long-term customer loyalty and advocacy.
This has created an important shift in organisational communication. With the right campaign planning and execution, should more brands seek to use their influence in dealing with some of society’s big issues?
Professor Anne Gregory, chair in corporate communication at the University of Huddersfield, thinks so.
She said: “[Organisations] are being forced to rethink their purpose and how they gain and maintain their legitimacy not only with their immediate stakeholders, but to society more widely.”
While companies are increasingly called upon to have a social purpose linked to their objectives that underpins everything they do, success will be down to careful execution. Lush may not have been as hard hit as expected in terms of sales for its clumsy approach to an important issue but the creative execution remains key.
As Amanda Coleman, head of corporate communication for Greater Manchester Police, said: “All organisations get things wrong and all public sector organisations have to face scrutiny but surely it should be in the right place, at the right time and in the right way.”
