Pick n Pay shows the world how not to deal with online criticism [Update]

In a week that’s seen South African brands take a beating on Twitter, Pick n Pay should probably have known better than to ask someone to remove a tweet linking to a blog post that criticised a new sale campaign by the company.

The post in question, written by Celeste Barlow of the Reluctant Mom blog, takes particular issue with a promotional gift the retailer recently started giving out for purchases over R150.

In the post, Barlow complains that the introduction of Stickeez toys as a purchase reward (which are small plastic figurines attached to suction cups) mean that she can no longer do small trips to the shop as one Stickeez toy just doesn’t cut it when you’ve got three kids.

She imagines that the concept was created by a guy called Larry who most of the team thought “was a bit of a wanker anyway” and was just left to go at it because the toys were ridiculously cheap and no one really thought the campaign would work anyway.

The post has spread fairly rapidly across South African social media, resonating with parents whose children are going crazy for Stickeez.

Read more: Bic SA #HappyWomensDay poster stirs up social media, misses the point

But when TrendAfrica journalist Louise Marshland tweeted a link to the blog explaining that resonance, Pick n Pay asked her to delete her Tweet:

@Louise_Marsland Hi There. Kindly remove your tweet as the content is highly inappropriate.

— Pick n Pay (@PicknPay) August 14, 2015

Cue a slew of Twitter users wondering what the hell Pick n Pay’s social media manager was thinking:

@PicknPay @Louise_Marsland Come on, PnP. This is not how things work on social media. You are only drawing more attention to the post.

— Gus Silber (@gussilber) August 14, 2015

@PicknPay @Louise_Marsland You seriously just tweeted to a journalist telling them to remove a comment? You are for a fun weekend.

— MarkLives.com (@marklives) August 14, 2015

Tip: employ proper socmedia agencies “@PicknPay: @Louise_Marsland Hi. Kindly remove your tweet as the content is highly inappropriate.”

— Chris Roper (@ChrisRoper) August 14, 2015

@PicknPay @Louise_Marsland Oh dear. I laughed. I am too a ‘victim’. Overall feeling: brand warmth. Not so your response to Louise.

— Gillian Rightford (@grightford) August 14, 2015

Read more: Personal branding and reputation management: what you need to know

@PicknPay @Louise_Marsland the tweet is clearly more work by the idiot savant Larry. Kudos on the brilliant viral marketing campaign PNP!

— Scott Hadfield (@hadsie) August 14, 2015

@PicknPay censorship? You’ve mistaken the Internet for a place where people actually give a shit. @Louise_Marsland pic.twitter.com/p4WSQnt54g

— Psy (@KarmicBytes) August 14, 2015

Now whether you appreciate the content of the blog or not — it does wish an incurable venereal disease on the hypothetical Larry — you can’t argue that asking a journalist to remove a tweet that merely expresses support for the sentiment behind the content doesn’t rank as one of the best ideas out there.

Update: Pick n Pay has apologised:

@Louise_Marsland Sorry, we shouldn’t have asked you to remove your tweet.

— Pick n Pay (@PicknPay) August 14, 2015

@Louise_Marsland We should instead have just warned readers that the article you linked contained words which some might find offensive.

— Pick n Pay (@PicknPay) August 14, 2015