Ahhhhh, that old chestnut: When you’re asked to upload a photo on your social media platform for PR purposes and you foolishly copy and post the whole message, not just the bit they ask you to caption your post with.
Naomi Campbell seems to be the latest star to fall into the common trap of accidentally including her PR contact’s whole message including instructions of what to write, posting an image of Adidas sneakers to her account yesterday.
Alongside the image, she wrote, “Naomi, so nice to see you in good spirits!!! Could you please put something like: Thanks to my friend @gary.aspden and all at adidas – loving these adidas 350 SPZL from the adidas Spezial range.”
The instructions were quickly deleted, but not before many eagle-eyed fans could screen-shot concrete evidence of the faux-pas.
Of course, undisclosed sponsored social media posts are not new nor groundbreaking when it comes to advertising. Our feeds are saturated with celebrities endorsing everything from teeth-whitening products to food processors, lacking the kind of transparency they should probably embrace. Regardless, it seems our common-sense usually prevails as we are solidly conditioned to be able to recognise endorsements from reality as a result of the sheer number we see.
But as Campbell shows, there seems to be a new kind of PR trend in town. And one that seeks to demand a greater audience than just Campbell's own Instagram following. It's the oops-this-is-sponsored-I-just-let-the-cat-out-of-the-bag-kind. Because what's better PR than a simple Instagram post? One that makes headlines, of course.
