TheMarketingblog

The big Greggs ‘scum’ blunder : Phil Stelter, MD Unique Digital comments

Article image

“The front page of Google is your shop front, arguably more important for a lot of businesses than the physical store.

“Mistakes do happen, but it’s vital brands care tend to their online presence with the same attentiveness – would graffiti be left on the front of a Greggs shop, or removed as soon as possible? “Brands which plan marketing activities in real time are at a major advantage in this point. If Greggs is really on the ball, it could respond with an agile marketing campaign.”

Phil Stelter, managing director, Unique Digital

Phil – I am happy to report that Greggs’ communications team was quick to respond with a good-humoured response to Twitter users who spotted the Google glitch.Not so good however is the news that Greggs’ share price has dropped (Editor).

Greggs the baker demonstrated how to turn a PR nightmare into a positive after an offensive logo appeared on its Google profile.

High street bakery Greggs has been embarrassed after a spoof of its logo appeared online – and quickly went viral on social media.

An image with the tagline “providing **** to scum for over 70 years” appeared prominently in Google search results for the company’s name instead of its usual “Always Fresh. Always Tasty” slogan.

The company’s Wikipedia page was also apparently hit by hackers with a crude message briefly appearing before it was spotted and taken down.

Greggs’ communications team was quick to issue a good-humoured response to Twitter users who spotted the Google glitch. As the image was shared thousands of times – even trending on Twitter – It said: “All publicity is good publicity? That’s what they say isn’t it? *weeps alone in a corner*”. While Greggs worked on getting Google to address the problem “as a matter of urgency”, the company tweeted Google UK, offering doughnuts as a reward for fixing it. Google’s PR team joined in with the joke, responding: “Sorry @GreggstheBakers, we’re on it. Throw in a sausage roll and we’ll get it done ASAP. #fixgreggs”.

A short time later Google confirmed via Twitter that the offensive image had been removed – earning a reply from Greggs suggesting a new Google doodle made from sausage rolls.

The fake logo was hosted by the satirical website Uncyclopedia, which revealed it was uploaded by a user called Romartus on Tuesday morning.

It is thought it was picked up by a Google algorithm, which trawls 60 trillion individual pages across the web for content relevant to search results.

P.S. It is unclear whether the image swap was a deliberate action against Greggs or a one-in-a-million fluke but the error remains live as this story is published.