Brands are becoming more and more savvy to the dire consequences of a negative social media backlash against them, but Paperchase could clearly do with some advice on social media damage limitation, as an obscure artist’s frustrated blog, accusing them of plagiarism, has exploded all over the social media world this morning and may do severe damage to their reputation if the word of mouth continues at its current rate.
You decide: is HiddenEloise's image...
...a victim of plagiarism?
Graphic artist “Hidden Eloise”, whose creations are available via various online outlets, also keeps a sporadically updated blog, and came out last night with a strongly worded post accusing the British stationery manufacturers of plagiarising one of her designs. From a personal point of view, I found the original design of a girl in the forest extremely dull, but that’s beside the point – a Flash animation hammered the point home convincingly and without further evidence it is hard to argue with her allegation. The post found its way onto mainstream Twitter channels and vigorous commenting and Tweeting ensued. I personally heard of it via a political Tweeter who I follow; while Twitter activity worldwide, soon congregating at the #paperchase hashtag, provided focus. The hashtag, as I write, has dozens of new tweets appearing every minute.
What of the corporate response? It would have been a start if Paperchase had any visible social media presence whatsoever. There is no Twitter presence – although as I write, in the last half hour a @paperchaseuk account has appeared, directing traffic to Eloise’s blog post and #paperchase; there are two Facebook pages, one of which seems to be an amateur fansite which has not been updated since 2008 and another, which could possibly be official, which has 100 fans and has not been updated since March 2009. So as it stands, the rumours, allegations and comments are free to spread unchecked throughout the social media space, with users happy to provide some forthright opinions (the leading tweet seems to be one describing them as “thieving fuckbags”). Meanwhile negative reviews are appearing on Amazon – an important affiliate to Paperchase – of their products. Ruinous? Time will tell.
There are important lessons to be learned here. The blogosphere, in general, reflects the moral majority and will always stick up for the “little person” taking on the corporate giants; the Rage Against The Machine Christmas No 1 phenomenon being a prime example. From the flashmob to the anticorporate campaign, the novelty of “strength in numbers” via social media has not yet worn off. Without judging Paperchase’s initial action on the artwork, companies should be aware that any unethical practices are liable to being “found out” and exposed to a global audience through social media. PR activity needs to be instant as well; any apology, rebuttal or explanation must be released within hours, even minutes, of the company finding out. Only 15 hours have gone by since the original blog post and yet the silence from Paperchase has gone on far too long. Meanwhile, having a complete lack of social media presence whatsoever in the consumer world is unforgivable. Paperchase are unlikely to make the same mistake twice.
About The Author
Eoghan O'Neill
Eoghan O’Neill is a Social Media Analyst for Social Media Library. Responsible for developing the content within Social Media Library, Eoghan spends his day darting between reading blogs and Twitter posts from around the world, and with his nose deep in spreadsheets! Prior to joining Social Media Library he worked within Arts Marketing for a leading arts trust and is a Physics graduate from Imperial College, London.
Eoghan blogs frequently at Eoghan London and is an active user of Twitter too @EoghanLondon.
