“This is the worst food I have ever seen with my eyes,” said food critic Grace Dent after breakfast cereal Weetabix posted a picture of Weetabix with baked beans and described it as ‘breakfast with a twist’.
But the infamous picture has since proved to be a marketing masterstroke, with the image going viral on social media and sparking jokey replies from the US Embassy, the Israeli government and the official site of the NHS (“that tweet should come with a health warning”, it said).
The original tweet has now been liked more than 125,000 times and even saw an exchange in the House of Commons as what appeared to be a moment of madness was revealed to be a stroke of marketing genius.
But what other brands have used their social media accounts and other methods to pull off PR stunts that have pushed their brands into the public eye?
Greggs (1)
Newcastle bakery chain Greggs are probably the masters of social media marketing, with a string of viral tweets that show off their Geordie sense of humour.
From trolling Piers Morgan after he got upset at the launch of Greggs’ vegan sausage roll (“Oh hello Piers, we’ve been expecting you”) to hosting Valentine’s Day dinners in its stores, the company’s use social media has been a major part of its recent success.
Possibly its greatest moment came when it set up a stall at a posh London food festival under the name Gregory & Gregory and served its pies and pasties to unsuspecting but appreciative foodies.
Greggs (2)
Natives of Newcastle will know that the unveiling of Fenwick’s Christmas window is one of the main events in the Tyneside social calendar, attracting major crowds throughout November and December.
Greggs has a shop opposite Fenwick’s store on Northumberland Street, and in 2018 some bright spark had the idea of reversing its sign so that its logo reflected in the window display.
(A nativity scene featuring a sausage roll was a rare mis-step for Greggs, however, and it apologised to offended Christians.)
Paddy Power
The Irish bookmakers are also veterans of the marketing prank, and sent a Mexican mariache band to greet President Trump when he arrived in Scotland for a visit in 2016.
Perhaps their best stunt was to spark howls of outrage from football fans everywhere with sponsorship of Huddersfield Town in the form of a sash on the team’s blue-and-white striped shirt that made the team look like they were on a hen night in the Bigg Market.
The next day the firm revealed it was still sponsoring the club but had removed its logo entirely and was launching the ‘Save Our Shirt’ campaign to encourage other brands to follow its lead.
NowTV and the massive Jeff Goldblum statue
To mark the 25th anniversary of Jurassic World - and gain a fair bit of buzz for its streaming service - NowTV erected a giant statue of American actor Jeff Goldblum in a provocative pose in central London.
The statue at Tower Bridge was almost 10ft high and 23ft long but was only at the scene for a short period to ensure its presence was shared on social media.
Goldblum was unaware of the statue until a friend texted him with a link to a photo. “Whoa! Holy cow!” he later recalled saying.
Specsavers ribs Dominic Cummings
The opticians’ “should have gone to Specsavers” slogan is ripe for different uses and has proved a major part of the chain’s rise in recent years.
Predictably, the company was quick off the mark when the Prime Minister’s then advisor Dominic Cummings explained away a trip to Barnard Castle while he and his wife were suffering from coronavirus as a way to test his eyesight.
Thousands of Twitter users used the company’s slogan in response to Mr Cummings’ explanation of his trip, and the company obliged by producing “should have gone to Barnard Castle” artwork.
Let the intern take charge
Not many brands have been as toxic as Southern Rail in recent years, with constant delays and cancellations drawing the ire of thousands of passengers around London.
But the company had a rare good day when a 15-year-old on work experience took charge of its social media for the day, charming the nation with his easy going responses to a series of increasingly random questions.
“Eddie, would you rather have rollerblades for feet or chopsticks for hands?” asked one ‘passenger’. ““Rollerblades for feet,” he replied. “I feel like I would get used to them pretty quickly and be able to get places quicker!”
No more Shakespeare
The people of Stratford and the wider West Midlands are rightly proud of their links to England’s finest dramatist William Shakespeare.
But when the film Anonymous was released in 2012, dramatising the long-discussed theory that Shakespeare did not actually write all of the plays attributed to him, a marketing campaign was unleashed in which all traces of the Bard were wiped off the map.
The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust - which wanted to criticise the film - taped over nine road signs bearing his name on roads entering Warwickshire, put a sheet over the Gower Memorial statue in Stratford-upon-Avon and covered up signs on 10 local pubs that bear Shakespeare’s name.
Iceland adverts get more views than ever after being banned
The frozen food firm collaborated with environmental charity Greenpeace to produce a Christmas advert after it pledged to ban the use of palm oil in its products.
The advert was banned by regulators because of its political content, but that setback turned into a positive when enraged supporters of the cause began sharing it online.
(The issue came back to bite Iceland, however, when it admitted that it had removed branding from some own-brand products after it was unable to meet the pledge to remove all palm oil).
KFC owns itself
Takeaway chain Kentucky Fried Chicken has faced its challenges its recent years, not least in 2018 when it ran out of poultry and had to close most of its restaurants.
The company showed its sense of humour when it took out adverts saying “we’re making progress” above a picture of its logo with its KFC logo mis-spelled to read FCK.
It also used social media criticism - ‘Dear KFC, No one likes your fries. Yours sincerely, The entire World’ - to good use the same year by putting it on posters above the message: “new fries coming soon”.
Bernie's mittens
Pictures of American senator and darling of the left Bernie Sanders wrapped up nice and warm at President Biden’s inauguration last month quickly became a much-shared meme on social media.
As a trend began showing Mr Sanders in his coat and mittens in various locations around the world, it emerged they had been made by primary school teacher (and Bernie fan) Jen Ellis.
Inundated with demand, Ms Ellis teamed up with the Vermont Teddy Bear Company to meet soaring demand, with some of the proceeds going to the Make-A-Wish Vermont charity.
"Sue, you're shouting at tea"
Yorkshire Tea faced a backlash when Chancellor Rishi Sunak posted a photo of himself with a cup of its brew (despite pointing out the picture was not its doing).
After one particular angry - and lengthy - response from a Twitter user, the company tweeted "Sue, you're shouting at tea. Please do look after yourself and try to be kind to others. We're going to mute you now."
The phrase became a by-word for dealing humourously with the inexplicable fury of some social media users.
