YesMadam Enters The Bad Advertising Hall-of-Fame - How They Could've Handled This Better

Earlier this week, YesMadam’s internal email got “leaked“ to the general public, and it sparked an outrage against the brand.

For quick context: YesMadam is a Salon service startup that offers doorstep hair care services to its customers. They launched a marketing campaign under the pretext of “firing“ a bunch of their staff who had responded to a stress survey launched by the company.

Within 24 hours, the company had to come clean that this was just a marketing ploy and that no one was getting fired, but I have a feeling someone is :’)

The PR stunt struck a wrong chord on so many levels, there is but the most tiny silver lining to this entire fiasco (we’ll get to that as well in a bit)

But first, why did people find this so infuriating?

Poorly delivered joke + an audience that’s on-edge = Recipe for the worst hangover ever

With the job market slowly getting back on its feet, and people from across the globe having dealt with recession first-hand, imagine Dave Chapelle walking up to the crowd and delivering the most insensitive joke on your life.

Well, it’s Dave Chapelle, so sure, you would’ve laughed your ass off. But this was no Dave Chapelle, this was YesMadam - a hair care services company that was just gaining ground. When I say nobody laughed, you better believe…… Nobody. Laughed.

But imagine if Dave Chapelle had actually delivered this joke. What could’ve gone differently for this campaign to work?

puts on commentator headphones

Let’s take a look at that delivery again…..

The first para reads good. It’s soft and professional and the reader has no idea what they’re about to get themselves into. It is a great setup, so we don’t need to make any changes there.

The second paragraph is where our train derailed off the track

This is just bad copywriting. Their follow-up copy didn’t help either.

Here’s the thing about jokes and eggs: the half-baked ones always stink.

When you’re trying to deliver on something as important and serious as mental health, your best bet is to jump on either side of the extremes - go super serious, or go extremely drop-your-balls-to-the-floor funny.

The middle ground is a death trap - it’s awkward, it leaves a bad taste, it ruins the whole dish. I think I’m still fixated on the egg :’)

Anyway, here’s how Dave Chapelle would’ve handled it:

Some of us have problems committing to stuff, and it shows :’)

You have to lean in to your jokes, or they don’t work.

The YesMadam team could’ve handled this way better, and I don’t blame them.

As I’m pressing publish on this post, Mayank Arya (CEO, YesMadam) has just put out a post talking about their true intentions with the campaign.

And I guess the audience has bought in on the video :)

So fickle is the heart

Whether you agree with the campaign or not, you have to admit, this was good PR for the company.

YesMadam probably gained more traffic this week than over the entire year.

Now, the real question is: How do you come back to weave a positive story from such an incident?

If you liked this piece, share it with a friend, let me know what copy you’d have delivered for the email :)