The archived PM’s twitter handle gets Bad PR this week

 21st May 2014    Good and Bad PR 
 Paarul Chand

Bad PR

Outgoing Prime Minister’s Office Twitter handle changed and archived 

Now this is a truly bad PR move. The media team of the outgoing Prime Minister changed the Twitter handle @PMOIndia, with 1.2 million followers, to @PMOIndiaArchive. The media team led by Pankaj Pachauri even refused to part with the password of the account.

The media team says this has been done in accordance with the RTI Act. Followers of the old @PMOIndia handle cannot be migrated to a new account for Modi and will have to follow the account individually.

The refusal to hand over digital assets is a childish, petty move and achieves little beyond a temporary aggravation.

Restaurant review site Zomato.com forced to withdraw campaign after accusations of racism

In a country like India it never helps to try and pit one region against the other in a negative way, given the many layers of identity every Indian has – class, caste and religion.

Popular restaurant review site Zomato.com ran a hiring campaign called Tech Capital. The campaign was meant to bring out the advantages of working in Delhi as opposed to Bengaluru. Cheeky reasons were attributed to why Delhi is “better” along with jibes at Bengaluru’s traffic situation.

Of course all hell broke loose on social media with angry Tweets from Bengaluru fans:

The outcry forced Zomato to withdraw the campaign and issue an apology, saying: 

Arun Jaitley compares Ramdev to Mahatma Gandhi!

The results are just about done and dusted, while the swearing in ceremony and cabinet formation are currently occupying the news agenda. Yet politicians still find time to create bad PR for themselves. Topping the list is Arun Jaitley with his comparison of Ramdev, he of the revolving yoga abs, to Mahatma Gandhi for “awakening the voters of India”. 

Given the BJP’s close links with RSS, such praise of religious leaders will be something BJP leaders should guard against.

Poor Rahul can do no right

After a total rout at the polls, Rahul can do no right. Knifes are already pretty sharp, and he has been criticised about his poor leadership, his disconnect with the voters and his team that isolated party veterans during crucial decisions about candidates and campaign strategy.

But if one image stuck out over the last one week, it’s this video of his smiling at the conference accepting defeat. 

The media made fun of his smiling at the conference. Some papers even took it seriously enough to say that reviving the Congress party is no laughing matter – proving once again that Rahul has a serious perception issue among people.

Twitter naturally had a lot say about the Rahul smile: 

Good PR

Myntra.com declares Modi and Sachin Pilot as most fashionable politicians

Brands are still riding the election bandwagon to generate PR. Here’s an interesting one. Fashion site and e-tailer Myntra.com has come out will a poll about who is India’s most fashionable politician.

As it’s the Modi season, quite naturally he has topped the list, followed by Sachin Pilot. Here too, sadly, Rahul Gandhi does not lead!

Another interesting finding from the poll is that people would like to see the ever so cool Shashi Tharoor in a James Bond styled suit!

As Gopal Sathe, one of the speakers at the recently held PRmoment India seminar on brand communication with the millennials, advised companies to mix it up a bit. Suggesting the inclusion of fun stories along with the serious stuff for better media coverage.

Myntra.com seems to have got that memo. 

Google’s salute to Indian election results is great PR

Google’s doodles have always been a great way for a company to gain PR. Some years ago, art work created by children featured as a Google Doodle on Mahatma Gandhi. On the day of the election results, Google came up with this great doodle featuring the voting finger.

Google has been very active with leveraging its brand during the elections as have been Twitter and Facebook. While Facebook reminded you to vote when the area you lived in went to the polls, and Twitter supported live analysis on channels such as Times Now and Headlines Today, Google provided a live election tracker as the counting went underway. During the polls Google also tied up with CNN-IBN for Google Hangouts with leaders such as Arvind Kejriwal.

Have you seen any good and bad PR?

Write to Paarul Chand at paarul@prmoment.in or tweet @PaarulC or @PRmomentIndia throughout the week and we’ll happily credit you for your trouble.