Social media marketing and current events

I love when companies use news stories in their marketing and advertisements.  It catches attention and makes everything more interesting.  Also we are more likely to talk about it the next day.  Anything that involves celebrities and public mistakes in satire is probably ok to use, however anything that involves gore, ethnical jokes, or tragedy (natural or human-caused) is probably not in good taste.  It's a line that needs to be walked carefully.

Oreo's creativity and swift responses to current events keep them a top-dog in social media. Any company that can direct this much traffic in such a small amount of time is honorable. The key to this type of attention is timing. Bad timing can drop effectivness and even cause outrage within the communities you are attempting to reach. The Royal baby tweet seemed harmless to me, but as a time that people honor and cherish I could see how it was taken out of context. It is Oreo's intention to be witty as a goal to be shared and retweeted. This tweet was their way of taking something relevant and making it their own. It is all part of the game, and I don't think it made Oreo look bad, it kept them relevant as well.

Social media strategies in advertising are definitely a future in advertising.

I don't think it is ridiculous or bad that a  company want to make a comment on happy news going on today such as Royal baby. On the other hand, if a company want to leverage from tragedy or bad news, it is ethically wrong for a company to do that from my personal view. when a company take advantage of current fairs, it will grab people's attention more easily and make a free promotion as well. The brands should be carefully select the topic they want to use because if they done wrongly, it will drive audience away. It is difficult to keep balance between those people who feels the joke funny and those who thought the joke would offend themselves. 

I heard some controversy about the large number of news report on the Royal Baby. Many people criticized the media were crazy and should not put so many efforts on a baby boy who cannot even speak while ignored some news about victims who really need help from the public. This compliant became louder and louder, making quite a lot of people sick of the Royal Baby issue, the reports, even jokes. 

So the time of tweets that get the brand into a discussion about some hit issues is crucial. Like the Super Bowl tweet, Oreo's reaction is really quick so the tweet itself became something that can share with friends to express the shock, the upset and the discontent about the "blackout." Although the Royal Baby tweet is also with excellent humor, from my perspective, while before the Royal family finally announced the birth of Royal Baby, audiences had received so many reports, rumors, discussions about that issue. Although the baby has not show up yet, the issue about him became cliché. 

It's always important to be relevant in advertising. There are very people and fewer topics transend time and stay relevant in society. Michael Jordan is a person who will be famous forever it seems, while the cast of Jersey Shore are already nobody's. When a national situation happens like the power outage at the Superbowl it is on everyone's mind and when you make a joke about it, it sticks better than a generic advertiesement that say's "eat Oreos". Sometimes it's a tough decision, you don't want to make a joke about a situation where people have been hurt because you made the advertisement before getting all the facts. The superbowl commercial that made light of the situation in Tibet is an example of an ad that wasn't well thought through. 

I thought the way that they presented the birth of a royal was clever. I am not sure why it was seen as offensive by some. It was defiantly not comparable to 9/11 or some other worldly disaster. As long as the breaking news is not devastating or horrible news, I do not see why using that news to your advantage. I think that it is clever and witty for a person to think that quickly on their feet. As from your example the Oreo and the super bowl power outage. It was simple, quick and effective. Oreo made light of an annoying situation. I think like you said that when something could be offensive it should not be used. Positive sells better. 

I think what Oreo did was a great idea. They took what was happening to the present time and used it to premote their product in a clever and original way. I'm not quite sure why the Royal Baby tweet caused such a problem, people were talking about it non stop and having a baby is a happy time, it's not like Oreo was premoting negative things. Unless I completely missed something and it's obviouly why it a problem then I apologize for being naive but I don't see the problem. It's quite smart if you ask me.

I thought the royal baby tweet was light-hearted with comical intent. The birth of the royal baby was a globally significant event, but it wasn't really a controversial issue. However, those that responded negatively to the tweet may have been put off, because it appeared to them that the company was capitalizing on the birth of a public figure to promote their brand. Alternatively the Superbowl tweet from Oreo was genius. The quick reaction to an issue that had the attention of a massive and otherwise unparalleled audience was brilliant exposure for the brand. The power outage at the Superbowl was a sort of lightning in a bottle incidence though; this sort of event can't be staged or recreated. In the future immediate reaction and effective response to significant/ culturally relevant events will likely be one of the best ways to attain audience attention and mass media exposure.

Marketing is all about getting attention. Designs, phrases, colors, etc. are all used to grab the eye of the audience. Oreo did a phenomenal job grabbing peoples attention with this SuperBowl ad.  They were suppose to grab the eyes of the viewers, and that is exactly what they did. I consider that success. A similar, more recent ad going back to the SuperBowl "black out" was introduced by McDonalds. It featured the starting quarterbacks from both the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers, competeing to see who gets to eat the new chicken wings. Negative media is controversal topic. It grabs attention, and it gets the hits the creator wants, however it may leave a negative image in the minds of the viewers. Agreeing that one should never use a tragedy as an advantage point, however I feel the black out of the SuperBowl is not of the kind.

        Personally, I thought the there was nothing wrong with the Oreo Royal Baby tweet.  I thought the tweet was humorous and lighthearted.  Let’s be honest… everyone was talking about the royal baby!  I think it’s important for companies to be current on events in our culture.  I believe starting a conversation about recent happenings, ultimately bring in more web traffic and gets individuals in on the discussion.   The rule of thumb I would use when displaying product promotion for social media marketing would be to avoid talking about politics and religion, but it is hard to judge what is too risky because sometimes taking the biggest risks can have the biggest payoff.  

Unfortunately, I find that many things companies say on the Internet are taken too far out of context. I have no problem with the Oreo royal baby tweet and can not really see how it could be controversial. I know I am particulary cautious on what I say on social media because I do not want to offend a potential employer. Using events like the Super Bowl Blackout should be fine to advertise a product or promotion. Tragic events should be avoided, even if it is in a good light.

I thought that the Royal Baby tweet was cute and funny. I didn't think that the royal baby being born was a very controversial event though. I thought that it was something to celebrate. Maybe the people responding to the tweet were mad that companies are trying to take advantage of every event that happens.  The Superbowl tweet from Oreo was genius and very clever, I liked it a lot for it being so simple.  I think that it will get more difficult in the future to continue tweeting about new exciting events because like you said, the same tired jokes aren’t going to cut it.  I also think that you make a great point by thinking about the events from all different sides of the issue and never make light of a tragedy or any sort of news involving human misery, it just seems like common courtesy. 

I think that the Oreo Royal Baby tweet is all in good humor. It would be one thing if the birth of the baby was a controversial topic, or there had been complications of some sort, but that was not the case. I actually found the tweet very cute and think it was a very creative idea from Oreo. People these days are becoming so overly sensitive to ads and over think their motives. I agree with your rule of thumb on not using any sort of news involving tragedy and suffering of the people. Offending a specific audience does WAY more harm than good and is not worth the destruction of your brand. I think this is definitely one of the biggest rules to follow when wanting to use social media marketing with breaking news. Another guideline would be to focus on your product more than the event itself. Try to only use the breaking news to be the starting point of the ad, but you really should build on top of that. All in all, I think that using breaking news with social media marketing is a very smart move by companies. Social media is the best way to reach people, and especially during huge nationwide/ worldwide events when everyone and their brother is checking their Twitter, Instagram and Facebook looking for the most current information. 

I see nothing wrong with the Oreo Royal Baby tweet, I think it is silly and cute. The tagline "long live the creme" is both clever and catchy. The birth of the royal baby is a positive, newsworthy event and there is nothing negative about the ad. Same with the Oreo Super Bowl tweet, a smart way to capitalize on a national event. Some may argue the company was mocking the power outage but really they were telling their consumers don't worry we don't mind the dark. I believe it crosses the line when leveraging a negative news event. For example, if Oreo promoted an ad at the time of the Boston bombing with the tagline "the flavor is explosive." It is uncool to attempt to make profit off of a tragic or serious event. However, leveraging exciting, positive, or even neutral news is simply good marketing. IF done in good taste.

I'm not completely against the Oreo Royal Baby tweet, but I do think it's a little cheesy. Their target market must have been a younger demographic because this ad is pretty childish to me. It's clever in the sense that its relatable but I don't necessarily think its effective in getting more customers to buy oreos. I do respect their efforts in trying to stick out with their product promotion and I think they will only get better. When leveraging a breaking news event for social media marketing I would be sure to always present it in a proper and mature manner. It's never a good idea to take huge risks with potentially disrespectful images or sayings. Protecting the reputation of the brand has always got to be at the forefront. 

The idea of leveraging breaking news for product promotion obviously isn't anything new. Frankly, I think it's a good ploy to see product and grab attention. What's more interesting than the "now"!? However, there are always people who blow clever ads way out of proportion and call them 'racey' or 'inappropriate', etc. and that's what seems to be what makes an advertisement "negative". That group of people is a very small percentage- usually the general public doesn't see a witty promotion that plays off of a current event (tragic/sad or not), and freak out. this is just another example of how negative media (even in very small numbers) can create a larger disturbance than a large group of positive feedback. Bad publicity is popular publicity- which is probably why Oreo and many others go for the "leverage" game on breaking news for social media marketing. Even though its bad publicity, it's still a heck of a lot of attention that good publicity wouldn't draw attention nearly as quickly.

While I also believe that it is important to watch what we say on social media websites, I think that people often take it out of context or take it to the extreme. One little offensive comment should not lead to the end of someone's career or the demise of a business. We all make mistakes and there are ways to come back from it. In today's "online" society it is more important that ever to be cautious about what we put on the web, because it is available for everyone to see. It leads to bad first impressions and can ultimately hurt personal as well as professional branding efforts. Remember the old advice your mom used to tell you: If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.

I think Oreo's royal baby tweet is both appropriate and harmless. In general, I like when brands take advantage of current events to engage in real-time marketing-when it's done well. The current event you're trying to chime in on needs to fit your brand, I think brands have to be careful not to look like they're that annoying kid in the background that always has to add something ("Look at me! Look at me!") 

Definitely NEVER use tragic events to advertise. I would say that a brand even has to be careful when "paying respects" to a tragedy. Recently, AT&T shared a picture of one of their phones taking a photo of the 9/11 light memorial, and although they removed all logos from the phone in the picture, people still thought that AT&T was using the anniversary of the terrorist attacks as an excuse to advertise. There was a lot of backlash, even though I genuinely believe that AT&T's team thought that they were "being respectful." It's definitely a fine line.

I think that what Oreo did was absolutely fine. Using breaking news to promote your product is something that I consider almost guerilla marketing. It is a great way to save money and make light of a situation that happened- such as the power going out at the Super Bowl. When the power went out, it wasn't some global tragedy. It was just confusing and kind of comical (if you looked at the Illuminati tweets about Beyonce). What better way to promote your product than when everyone is racing to Twitter to find out what was going on. Obviously companies shouldn't do promote their product during worldwide tragedy- such as 9/11- however tweeting their support for people affected is just fine. The media blows everything out of proportion as it is. Oreo shouldn't let the haters get to them about the Super Bowl ad. It was just a little comical relief that promoted their product and made "light" of the situation. 

Personally, I think that utilizing quick response methods of advertising are simply one the most effective ways to get quick mentions. It's a rare strategy in a time that companies need to distance themselves from the clutter. That being said, the quick response strategy has to be tasteful. Just because Oreo had one success does not mean that that will be remembered the next time that quick response causes a nightmare of a PR situation. Good reputations as a brand take a long time to garner, but gaining a bad reputation can take an instant. As advertisers it's our job to see opportunities to take, but when people get a high off a successful campaign and get a bit too gung-ho (such as the royal baby tweet) problems occur and the brand's image is replaced as one of insensitivity and irreverence. Again it's our job to see opportunity, but it's also our job to be selective and careful about where we place our brand. As for rules of thumb, I don't believe there can be beyond the realm of common sense. Placing rules can limit options when there are exeptions that can be utilized for ad opportunities. The Oreo royal baby tweet was a lapse in common sense, and that's where the problem arose. Running a tweet through a couple people can take five minutes, negate poor choices, and even create more ideas. Common sense and a quick review is all it would take. 

Personally, I didn't even watch the superbowl and I heard all about Oreo and how they were right on top of thing when tweeting (which is really cool!).

On the other hand, I am very facinated with the royal baby along with the royal family all together! So that did mean I Was watching updates all day long, inlcluding on twitter and facebook too! From the looks of it, I was not the only one who enjoyed the twitter and facebook updates on the royal baby. To me, the baby was breaking news. But not so much for someone to compare it to 9/11. Infact, just the thought of someone making a comparision is like, what heck? Yes the baby is breaking news, but not something as serious as an attact on our country, which is why Oreo decided to be quick on their feet and tweet! 

Other companies like Charmin always have funny tweets that are something I love reading. 

I really recommend you checking out someone of their twetts, I think they might be one of the funnest brands that have tweeted recently!  http://twitter.com/charmin 

Hmm to make a rule of tumb for companies tweeting a breaking news event is a tough one. I honestly had no idea when thinking about that, so I did what my generation does best...GOOGLED IT! In this blog article, it gives you many ideas on how to address thinking about tweeting. But, for the most part the number one thing is, if you have to think about it, you probaby shouldnt be posting about it becasue most likely, somone will be offended. The artricle also has many other ideas about how to know the differance between social media marketing breaking news and something that might destroy a company. So take a look and enlighten yourself http://patheos.com/blogs/getreligion/2013/07/associated-press-think-before-you-tweet

Wow, I remember this ad from the digital marketers of Nabisco during Super Bowl Sunday when twitter went crazy!

It was defiantly eye-catching and pretty brilliant.  I say brilliant because Nabisco did not spend a dime on TV advertisement.  However, what I found even more impressive is the Oreo PR team was able to come up with an ad that was universally accepted in such a sort period of time. According to Mashable.com, the employee behind this prompt ad should be getting a rise. In regard to Matt Lynley from BuzzFeed stating “the absolute worst thing ever to put on the web”, I think anyone who disagrees about this ad is just jealous. This Oreo ad was like hitting the advertisers jackpot! 

I thought the oreo advertisements over twitter showed great poise and creativity. Coming up with that during such a small time period showed that oreo has one of if not the best advetising PR firms. It showed that social media can create a huge buzz, not only because it was on during the super bowl when the stadium lost power, but because it had the perfect amount of wrong that made it right. They took multiple situations and made one great social media promotion, royal baby announcements, power outages at super bowl. 

I thought the Oreo tweet during the Super Bowl was creative and shows that their PR/Marketing department can really think fast on their feet. This is obviously important for any company. However, the Super Bowl issue obviously wasn't a planned event. With the Royal baby, everyone knew Kate was pregnant and although the actual day was a surprise, the overall birth wasn't. To me, this means Oreo had about 8 months to plan something really cool and unique. The tweet they used wasn't bad, but it looked like they came up with it last minute. They could have planned it out before (or made it look/sound like they did). If they were trying to go for a "last minute" look, they should have somewhere included at least the gender of the baby because that was a surprise. Overall, I don't think it was offensive (and should not have been compared to 9/11) but it wasn't anything memorable (it seemed to similar to the Super Bowl tweet) or "cool." I think as a rule of thumb, you need to be serious for serious events and funny for not serious events (but never offensive). I also think being clever is ALWAYS important, but the level of seriousness is your key to how far you take/push it. 

I think that what the Oreo team tweeted during the SuperBowl game was spectacular. They came up with something witty and yet culturally appropriate to the current situation. In advertising, you are always going to have someone that will disagree with your views, but no one would have been talking about Oreo at all if the tweet hadn't posted. This gained Oreo a huge response with over 15k retweets and 20 likes on Facebook. This response generated consumer attention to their upcoming tweets, which included the Royal Baby tweet. I think this post should have been thought through more, given it was very culturally irresponsible. The birth of the royal baby was taken very seriously across many parts of the world, and the fact that they're trying to make joke out of it was very risky. I think that there could have been other ways that Oreo could utilize the birth of the Royal Baby, maybe with a more serious tone rather than with a joke. I think when worldly events like this occur cultural norms really need to be taken into serious consideration when constructing a tweet. 

I found the Oreo Royal Baby tweet to be cool. I like that a big company is relating to a majority of their consumers by sharing in the excitement of that event. I do also agree that the efforts of digital marketers need to be very well done. These efforts seem to be either absolutely genius when executed well but could be complete disasters when done in poor taste or timing (ie: the 9/11 question). I think a lot of caution is necessary before anyone should post to a social media website so excessive precautions should be taken by large companies before they make a post. While Oreo struck gold with the super bowl black out ad, this does not mean that every other ad they post relating to recent events will be such a big hit. All in all, I think it is wonderful for companies to be connecting and interacting with consumers via social media, as long as they are well thought through.  

In my opinion the Superbowl tweet was brilliant. It was quick, funny, creative and obviously drew a lot of attention to the Oreo Twitter account. Oreo was able to think fast on their feet with such an unpredictable event occurring. I think the picture and slogan was so successful because it was simple and easy to remember.

I also think the royal baby tweet was clever and fun. I do not get the negativity towards the tweet. It was not offensive to me in anyway or do I think it should be to anyone really. I do not understand how people are comparing the royal baby birth to 9/11. I am pretty sure the people controlling the Oreo twitter account, know not to make a joke of a tragedy like 9/11. The birth of the Royal baby was an exciting event and Oreo was able to attract people to their product by using such a huge event to help do so. I see nothing wrong with it. Oreo is showing they are keeping up with currents events and know what the customers are interested in at that point of time.

I think the rule of thumb is use common sense. People know what is seriously offense and inappropriate. In general, I believe no matter what companies put out there is always going to be backlash.

The Oreo Royal Baby tweet was, in my opinion, not very funny or special or memorable. I think for something to stand out on social media, it has to have some sort of wit to it. The Super Bowl tweet was very fast and clever and great timing being that it was so quick to the event. The Royal Baby drew a lot of obvious attention, some that had already been planned out because it was expected. The blackout was sudden and Oreo responded to it in a funny way I think for an ad to be appropriate, the topics need to fit together in a way. Oreos and blackouts don't go together, but Oreo made it work. Oreos and babies don't go together (oreos and milk do, babies and milk do, but babies don't eat cookies), and they didnt successfully market the product to go to the baby. It was a cookie leaning on a bottle, and sure the bottle had milk. But babies don't eat cookies, they can't dunk cookies, and you can't dunk a cookie into a bottle with a lid. It just didn't fit together right.

I personally think that leveraging breaking news to promote a product via social media is great as long as it is done tastefully and does not offend your audience.  I think that using breaking news and social media together in this way is a great tool to use and that there are some huge advantages to using it. If the story is big enough if a post from your product is the first time someone reads about the news that will most likely increase your brand recognition. Now as I said this is a great tool, but only if it is used effectively. It is important to choose what news stories are appropriate to reference in social media posts. I agree that making light of tragedy and human misery are things to definitely stay away from. It is also important to remember your target audience and to not use stories that might cause controversy within that circle. 

 Oreo clearly displays originality in their social media product promotions; the Royal Baby tweet may have been on the verge of appropriateness and apparently offended some social media viewers. However, Oreo has successfully proven one thing, acting quickly and creatively on current events is a great way to grab the attention of the social media world. Taking advantage of harmless and widespread events, similar to the way Oreo's SuperBowl tweet during the power outage did, can cause a tremendous deal of excitement,  start word of mouth advertising along with the obvious social media advertisments directly through the tweet. Yet, some circumstances are clearly innappropriate to capitalize on. 

I believe that the efforts behind the Oreo royal baby campaign were good, but the outcome… not so much. I think that pulling current events into an advertisement is brilliant, but it’s important to pick the right/appropriate events to do so. Oreo saw an opportunity and grabbed it. Was it the right opportunity? Probably not, but those ideas were pointed towards the right direction. Usually when you involve the personal life of another human being, it’s going too far. Forming an ad campaign around a national mishap, such as the super bowl black out, is a great attention grabber. It’s safe territory because everyone has heard about it, and it isn’t directly putting anyone down. The problem with forming jokes or campaigns around a family or person is that those people have fans and supporters. Those campaigns will have a much higher offensive rate then a campaign base around an event.

In my opinion, even though the message or news might be sensational, to grab people's attention is the top priority. This does not mean that company should take sensational message of course. Actually, before the advent of social media or Internet, there are numerous sensational ads and campaigns. It's what they do every day, so it's not big deal. People like just sharing interesting issues or attacking them. However, in this oreo's case, I cannot even think about 9/11 and I have no idea how they connect to 9/11. Sometimes people can see a big leap in someone's logic. The different thing is that now we have social media and the big leap can be easily spread by SNS. 

I think it's a clever way for Oreo to continue to have relevant Twitter page that people will want to follow.  By using breaking news stories, Oreo has most likely gained more of a following than just using their cookies and new products that they may come out with as their focus.  At the very least it creates a discussion and makes Oreo's something that is on the mind of the person who comes across the page or see's a breaking news story from the Oreo Twitter page first.  If there was one thing I would stay away from if I was running Oreo's Twitter page, it would be from tragedies like war, disease, etc.  Breaking news stories like the royal baby being born can be funny and light-hearted and that should be what Oreo wants to align themselves with when doing these types of tweets.

Even with the negative comments, I think this was awesome. I don't know why people must interpret everything so negatively...but look at it this way, they are talking about it and it's free discussion. I'm not sure how someone can connect an Oreo with 9/11, but props to them for being crazy enough to do so. The point is that they effectively grabbed all of these peoples attention, and as long as society in general isn't so absurd that they believe crazy drama TMZ style news, it's a huge positive for Nabisco. I would have had no issue posting this, and would have done it again even with the negative comments. You must use proper judgement--because in the end, you could give it to a focus group..but if one person has a crazy idea and gets it out, it might be able to turn the entire picture on it's side...for the worse.

As shown multiple times through various companies and campaigns, nothing is as helpful as a quick response to a current event. If Oreo had sent out its tweet the next day, it wouldn't have had nearly as much of an effect. By being up to date and using current events as they happen, oreo is breaking the stale old style of the used car salesman, selling a product with the same old speech regardless of the weather. People care about current events, and microblogging sites like Facebook and Twitter, along with 24 hour live news networks give people a constant feed of what is happening in the moment. Oreo is just cashing in on what people want, and now what they are used to. People are going to be offended about anything and everything, and while it's good to try and stay on the safe side, people will still try to sensationalize a minor and negligible event to profit from it, such as the writers mentioned in your post. 

I thought that Oreo's Super Bowl use of digital media was clever, but comparing a happy occassion like the birth of the royal baby with a tragedy like 9/11 is in poor taste. I feel that Oreo should issue an apology statement that addresses this and those who may have found it offensive. As we learned earlier in the semester, damage control is important for large companies, and a statemnet like this should not be taken lightly. If I were Oreo, I'd fire whoever it wa sthat decdied to make that post.

I think it's ridiculous that someone would compare an happy occasion such as the birth of the royal baby to a tragic event like 9/11. I would think that Oreo would have the responsibility and the integrity to know what is appropriate to tweet about. I do agree with you about never talking about tragic events, regardless of how big it was. Even if you talk about a small event, it can blow up on social media and eventually the whole world will know about it (and will hate your company for it). That being said I think it's pretty cool that Oreo was able to tweet out that picture really fast at the Super Bowl. I think that Oreo does a great job with the pictures that they do like this one because it is so simple. As a result of that, it allows them to keep up and lets consumers know that they are staying relevant with the real world.

When a big company makes a comment or statement about something going on in the media today I dont see anything wrong with it, unless its totally offensive and inappropriate.  Most things that may be tweeted or said in a Facebook status post that a company may post jokingly may be taken too serious by the public simply because they are a brand or a company.  I believe there are new rules to marketing a pr that allows companyies and brands to take on a more humanizing tuype of role that people are able to relate to and find more personable.  In most cases, I don't see anything wrong with a company being funny, but I do agree that there are ways to make this not so tasteless or make light of a situation that is obviously serious. 

These days, advertising items, nations, companies, or even people become hard and complex. It is very difficult to grab public attentions. Some of advertising agenices and advertisers are doing really well. However, most of brands, celebrities, countries are having hard time. I will give one example in Korea, as I am originally from South Korea. Korean celebrity called Clara becomes very famous these days. Why? The reason is because of her body exposure. She wear shorter, sexier, and slimmer clothes in order to show her glamourous body. Then, she became much more famous than before. It is pretty sad to decide this kind of extreme selection. The world is getting bigger and complex. I hope there should be no misuse of famine, society, or ethics in our advertisements after all.

During the Superbowl I thought the Oreo twitter ad was BRILLIANT! I honestly had no idea how they pulled it off but the whole time I was thinking what a GREAT PR team that company must have. I honestly don't see anything offensive about the Oreo Royal Baby tweet...I thought it was funny and current. IN my opinion, people take jokes like that, that a big company makes... WAY too seriously. I think companies tweeting about current events like this is good...it shows they are current and knows what is going on in the world. I am not sure what rules of thumb I would use to determine...I am not sure if you can have rules of thumb. I honestly think it is up to the PR team to use their judgement. 

I thought this advertisement was awesome primarily because of the speed that they thought of this clever ad during the most popular thing of the year; the Super Bowl.  This shows that spontaneity and being quick to the point for situations such as the Super Bowl black out can be more productive than planning a long, drawn out marketing plan that can cost a significant amount. The Royal Baby ad in my opinion was not made in an offensive way and was over exaggerated. The Oreo ad was awesome.

Oreo Royal Baby tweet was great since it perfectly integrated the Royal baby with its products and thus promoted brand culture at the same time. And I believe the efforts to leverage breaking news for product on social media could be a trend or a new method for nowadays online promotion. Apart from Oreo, some other renowned brands such as Delta, CHARMIN also participated in this activity. Be mindful that brand leverage should be appropriate, like the article mentioned, which means the leverage would not raise obvious dislike or violate basic moral standards. It would be offensive if brand links product to tragedy or disaster news, such as 911.

The Oreo Royal Baby tweet doesn't seem very offensive, but perhaps that is because I am not British. I think that Oreo made a very smart move with the Super Bowl tweet and they are just continuing their strategy by tweeting about current social trends by bringing up the royal birth. You bring up a good point about needing to pay attention to how your message will be perceived by not only your targeted audience, but those who will come across it. I agree that when it comes to appropriate and inappropriate material it should be based upon how was involved and the outcome. If it deals with any sort of tragedy and your message could come across as sarcastic or unsympathetic it could be very damaging to your image. 

In the advertising world, it seems there is always a fine line between genius and disaster. In order to create an ad that will stick in people's heads you must be original. At the same time, going beyond the comfort zone of basic advertising can be detrmental to a company's image. I think this is a great lesson for all to think twice before you speak, or in this can tweet.

I suppose this is a warning to all to tread lightly when creating content on a foreign country. Personally, I did not find the Oreo Royal Baby tweet offensive, but I can (sort of) see where some people mind. It is important to keep in mind ALL audiences that might see your content. What one group may find funny, another may find completely ridiculous. It serves as a important reminder to all that if you question it, then don't post it. 

The "Prepare the royal bottle service" tweet by oreo was clever, yet not anywhere near as exciting as the "Blackout" Superbowl tweet. Reason being is that the Superbowl is relevant to American interest and therefore, Americans enjoy the relativity and humor of the ad. The Royal baby has nothing to do with Americans directly even if it is relavent and therefore loses quality. I feel that using breaking news for a product promotion can stay fresh without offending by choosing the breaking news events carefully. The event must be something that people can relate to but not in a negative way. Sure, the superbowl blackout could have been a complete disaster had there not been a recovery, but there was. Because of the recovery, we can all laugh it off as a memorable moment. It is not something that anyone can feel bad about or take something personally. The breaking news, if chosen for a product promotion, must be unbias, and an ironic or pleasant surprise. Specifically, in order for the promotion to work without offending it must be kept clean (appropriate), fresh (new) and "light" (happy, ironic, funny, surprising).

This was a genius response by the team at oreo. This really highlights how quick response to certain events can be more effective then things that have taken all year to plan. I would also argue that even if the response is simple, and maybe not even that well thought out, it is still more effective then doing nothing. The only downside to this is that companies can not rely on what are unpredictable events. Companies can learn though that they should always have a team on stand by, especially during large events for the countey/world.