Brand Dig: when UK passports, McDonalds and a US city risk a Boaty McBoatface

In this blog series, researcher Harry Symington digs into the world of social media and discusses brands, news, trends and examples that have made the digital headlines.

This week, Harry looks at brave brands opening themselves up to the trolls of the internet through online naming and designing competitions. With the now famous Boaty McBoatface as the - pardon the pun - flagship of failed 'let the public speak' online efforts, there are actually quite a few other brands that have happily stepped into the same trap, or are about to do so...

UK government careful not to repeat Boaty McBoatface

The EU referendum had a regrettable outcome for a lot British people. It was a result many of them didn’t expect, let alone vote for. Now, the UK government could be taking a gamble again. But this time there could be even more uncertainty, as the Home Secretary suggests asking the internet to design a new passport.

With the UK heading rapidly for a post-EU life and the government seemingly withdrawing from every EU institution, apparently it makes sense to redesign the passports too. British passports are red (just like the passports of other EU member states) and a campaign has been launched to re-introduce a blue one post Brexit.

But anyone who understands internet culture (and humour) might discourage the government from going down this route. Particularly after a contest to name a £200 million polar research vessel resulted in Boaty McBoatface coming out as the people’s choice. But it wasn’t just trolls. The memes that this event inspired, such as #TheInternetNamesAnimals (where people started renaming animals in the spirit of Boaty McBoatface) shows that Boaty McBoatface was one of those rare moments when internet humour crosses over into the real world.

McDonalds misjudges the internet's appetite for a joke

What's worse than asking the internet to vote on something? Apparently it's asking for their creative input, as McDonald’s New Zealand found out after asking people to create and name their own burgers.

The fast food chain actually launched a dedicated platform which gave people the tools to experiment with different combinations of burger ingredients. And of course the majority of submissions ranged from being tongue-in-cheek to outright filthy. They included: the carbonator, rektal prolapse, and pound my behind daddy.

McDonald's soon took the site down after realising its plan to tap the internet's creativity wasn't working. But is it any surprise that people would rather have a laugh than take the brand up on its rather paltry offer of free fries and soft drink for taking part?

An American city takes a cautious approach to redesigning its flag

While some brands are still confident they can treat the internet like an equal creative partner, others are now being more wary. Holland City Council in the US wants the public’s help in redesigning its flag but wants to minimise the potential for a “Boaty McBoatface” at the same time. Is that possible?

The local council has proposed a public contest to update the flag to better reflect the city’s new brand standards. The staff themselves would then narrow down the entries to five and put these ‘sanitised’ designs to a public vote mens air max 90 sale. The council would then pick the winner from the top two flags.

The idea of the contest is that it might engage those currently not interested in government. But the council is also being cautious in its expectations. It predicts that about 80% of the entries will be “unusable material”. So it the idea of co-creating with the internet tarnished forever?

Interested to hear how Pulsar can help get you more engagement with your audience without any naming or designing disasters? We're right here, drop us a line: [email protected]