It’s been 2 days now since *that* bodyform video, when a random (we assume) member of the public Richard posted this on bodyform’s faceboook page, attracting thousands of likes and comments, and Bodyform responded with this excellent video.
Id be interested to know if Bodyform’s hand was forced (seems unlikely since it was not a real criticism of the brand, just what looks like a man in a mischevious mood and a spare 5 minutes), or whether they felt that that number of likes and comments encouraged a response from them.
Whichever it was, what I find really interesting about this response is that they seem to have decided to use it not to just show that they a) read their social media pages b) engage with their customers and c) can have a sense of humour if it seems necessary for them to do so.
Instead they went with d). Use the moment to invoke an about-face in their brand’s tone and approach.
Because I’m both an optimist and yes, a feminist- I like to think that the recent slow snowball of generally discontented, cool and funny women breaking open notions of ladylike behaviour and dominating the dialogue around abortion rights, paternity leave, etc etc, has been a factor in Bodyform’s decision to release this, now. Perhaps they saw Richard’s comment as an opportunity to launch a change in tone that had already been approved at the highest level.
Because after all, this video response is getting so much attention because it’s so unexpected, and I’m not convinced that this much change in their brand’s ‘tone’ would have been decided in a day, or however long it took to turn around their response.
It’s interesting to consider, perhaps, that Bodyform knew that this kind of change was necessary in the way they spoke to women (and men by proxy), and used the social media response tradition to launch it. It makes sense- much more attention than simply putting out a very different TV ad- there’s a story here. A narrative. And in response, they can be much, *much* wittier in 1 minute than they could have been in a standard TV ad that has to stand alone, without context.
I would be fascinated to have been a fly on the wall at Bodyform HQ when this was happening. But just looking at the result, kudos to them for playing it so well.
samhoweynunn 