Funny Veet reviews – valid PR example? (potentially NSFW)
By Rich Leigh on Friday, April 20, 2012
Call me cynical (I am), but I'm sure the back/sack/crack Veet for Men reviews that have been popping up on Amazon over the last week are part of a new marketing push for the hair removal company.
I could be wrong – and for legal reasons in case any of Veet's legal team don't like my opinion, I am – but having knowledge of similar intentionally promotional efforts before, I thought it was worth highlighting this one.
In short, there's been a rise in the number of people sharing links to Veet for Men's Amazon product page, due to the nature of the reviews being left, the majority of which are warnings from men keen to warn just how stupid it is to use the product on your special place/s.
The comments section alone has been tweeted hundreds of times, and the Daily Mail picked up on the story, along with product images.
Here is a quick breakdown of the number of reviews per year:
2007: 2
2008: 0
2009: 4
2010: 6
2011: 10
NOTE – to this point, each of the reviews seem legit. One or two mention testicles, but that's about it. Nothing too funny.
2012: 69 (at the time of writing)
There was one funny review at the end of January – this one (possibly legit, pictured above) – and then, nothing until this month, when it took just three days for the product to surpass the number of reviews it had received in the previous 5 years. (13th-15th = 25 reviews). There are now dozens of reviewers jumping on the LOLzwagon, each with ever-more ridiculous bollock-related cautionary tales.
Whether any of the reviews are fake/written by somebody appointed by Veet is irrelevant. The point of highlighting this as a PR example is that brands could create funny/shareable content and benefit from it.
Every product PR campaign needs to highlight the benefits of the product and better still, give potential customers an action/a way to buy it. With that in mind, it'd be interesting to know the product sales prior to the funny reviews and since them.
If the people at Veet aren't behind this, they should be doing everything they can, behind closed doors, to push it.
