ChapStick—a brand whose marketing I don’t recall ever making any sort of impact. Until now.  ChapStick posted a weird image on Facebook of a woman, backside in the air, looking for her ChapStick behind a couch . Many comments resulted  objecting to the image. What does ChapStick do? They delete their comments. ChapStick’s ads with the line “Be heard at Facebook.com/ChapStick” start to look foolish. People keep commenting. ChapStick keeps deleting. People got angry. ChapStick got worried.  People started commenting about why they can’t see their old comments. ChapStick can’t keep up with all the deleting. Comments are getting through, and they’re nasty. ChapStick for some weird reason doesn’t just delete the image, apologize, or even acknowledge the issue, beyond its infuriating deleting of comments. ChapStick apparently thinks the whole thing will just go away if it can silence enough of its “fans.” Not very smart! Burt’s Bees and Carmex must be thrilled. Larger image after the jump.
ChapStick finally responded—deleting the offending post (it’s gone from the ChapStick website, too) andadding a new Facebook post with a weird semi-apology. “We see that not everyone likes our new ad, and please know that we certainly didn’t mean to offend anyone!” the post says. “Our fans and their voices are at the heart of our new advertising campaign, but we know we don’t always get it right. We’ve removed the image and will share a newer ad with our fans soon!”