Has Social Media Made Us Too Sensitive?

As I write this post, the memories of the Finnair and various other companies' PR mess in past few weeks is fresh in my mind. And it is with this foundation that I wish to start my new post on have we become insensitive?

It was in November 2001, Manix launched its advertisement called Harbor for its lubricating gel targeting the French market.

In what is seen as a serene, innocent picture, on closer examination, the details sink in. This advertisement, however, went on to win several awards including 18th Annual London International Advertising Awards.

Social media was in its nascent stage with Wikipedia taking baby steps that year and MySpace, LinkedIn Facebook etc launching within couple of years later. Hence this advertisement never got its chance to be shared, liked, tweeted, pasted to a wall or tagged.

Now fast forward the time period to October 2011.

10 years after the Manix promo, Chapstic rolled out an advertisement campaign " “Where Do Lost Chapsticks Go?” with the picture of a young woman’s behind (in jeans) as she bends over the couch allegedly searching for her Chapstick.

Underneath, the text is “Be heard at Facebook.com/Chapstick”

A blogger sees the image, takes offense, and writes about it on the Facebook. And Chapstick deletes her comments, which set off chain of events leading to the company apologizing and earning itself the dubious position of top 5 (or 3) Social Media disasters.

The point I wish to discuss is not on ethics behind deleting a social media post, but on the insensitivity part. Several people wrote on the Chapstic wall criticizing this campaign. The question is why have we become so insensitive. In which case, to me, the Manix advertisement was far more provocative than Chapstic.

So I leave this post with some open questions to deliberate upon-

1. Has Social Media opened up a Pandora box filled with criticism and insensitivity giving PR nightmares?
2. Or is Social Media right, in the sense of being democratic, for people to air their views?
3. Or have we become too sensitive?

My view- We, including me, have become too sensitive!

Thanks for reading this post and look forward for your views on this subject.

Disclaimer-Views and opinions expressed in the post are strictly personal. All products and logos are property of their respective manufacturer