I predicted this (sort of…)! In my review of the Heineken snake-fighting ad from last year, I suggested this might not be the best angle for the company to take (illegal underground animal fights in their ads, that is). Well, going in a direction I didn’t see coming (and neither did Heineken, I’ll bet: but we both should have!), apparently this ad campaign has made them the cultural catnip of underground animal-fighting rings. (Oops! That’s what you call a “PR Disaster”!)
Well, if PeTA didn’t complain about the snake-fighting ad before, animal-rights groups are certainly going to sit up and take notice (not to mention attack like vicious dogs in an, um, er, uh, an illegal dogfight, I suppose…) and howl Heineken into a summer’s-worth of dog days under the hot lights of harsh criticism and third-degree-style grillings. I know they probably don’t sponsor or condone these types of illegal underground animal-fighting rings, but when you show one in your ad campaign, people might start to think you do. And then they might just start putting your posters up on the walls at these events, and then people might see them. And then, this happens…
Here’s Heineken’s “doggie whoops”:
And here’s my old post about the “snakeskin jacket” ad from July, 2011:
