By Bizna Brand Analyst
Last week, a couple from Mwiki broke all odds and reminded the world that you don’t need to spend extreme amounts of money to tie the knot with the love of your life. The man and woman who are both fruit vendors spent only Kes. 100/- for their wedding. The money was used to buy two rings each costing Kes.50/- before they headed to the altar where a local pastor presided over their wedding. That was it. The wedding was done. They headed back home as man and wife. Hakuna story mob. No wedding committees and stubborn aunts.
Kenyans all over social media were impressed. In an age where love is thought to be dying, this couple had done the impossible.
Then came Bonfire Adventures, a tours and travel company that saw this whole situation in an evil manner that no other companies were seeing. Bonfire saw this as the perfect opportunity to exercise PR magic. The management decided to offer the couple a fully paid honeymoon in Mombasa as you can see from the post below.
What is wrong with such a move you may ask? After all Bonfire has made the couple’s matrimony even better right? Yes. Sure. But by publicizing the whole thing, it no longer counts as an act of kindness. When you give and show off it becomes a manipulative PR exercise. Also, when an individual or company gives then shows off, it becomes clear that their intention from the start was to market themselves and not really offer help. The person or party receiving the assistance was just used as pawns in the process – a small sacrifice for a greater financial good.
Think about it. Between the two parties, who has really benefited? It’s Bonfire Adventures of course. Thousands of Kenyans who didn’t know the company now know it and might give it biashara. The management knew this all along. The people there are even dancing and rejoicing that such a cheap marketing opportunity presented itself and other companies weren’t quick to see it.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have witnessed a classic case of a company preying on the poor. Ideally, the poor are never too tempting to thieves and exploiters, for obvious reasons. Mug a banker and you might score a wallet containing a month’s rent. Mug a janitor and you will be lucky to get away with bus fare to flee the crime scene. But to some, the poor in aggregate provide a juicy medium to push an agenda without compensating them much.
If the guys at Bonfire really wanted to help the couple, they could have just done so without letting the whole world know. They would have done it without posting millions of pictures on social media. That would have been so much better. The issue of companies and individuals exploiting the less-fortunate for PR purposes is common but that doesn’t mean it’s right.
The issue of companies and individuals exploiting the less-fortunate for PR purposes is common but that doesn’t mean it’s right. A good PR move is easy to spot. It effectively builds a relationship between the company (or person) and its target demographic. It doesn’t involve jumping on an opportunity or trend. It is memorable and leaves a lasting impression. It doesn’t have to be provocative or evocative; some of the best PR campaigns are simple in focus in scope. This one by Bonfire Adventures isn’t one of those.
