While YouTube and hard alcohol might sound like an ideal weekend to you, it’s only been the huge headache afterwards for Malibu Rum. Like so many consumer product companies before them, Malibu Rum conducted a video contest on YouTube, soliciting YouTubers to make a commercial set to that well known Trinidadian folk song, “The Banana Boat Song,: as sung by the “King of Calypso,” Harry Belafonte (and remixed by Ohioan RJD2).
Sounds like fun, yes? Wrong. Rum, lies, and video views prove otherwise.
The winning video’s (embedded above) announcement was quickly followed by a rumble of YouTubian resentment, the New York Times reports today. The finalists had never been contacted and the democratic voting for the top 10 never came. Contradicting versions of the rules were posted on YouTube, linked from Malibu Rum’s official site, and separately circulated by the Thomas Collective, a public relations agency that “managed” the contest.
In some versions of the rules, YouTube viewers would help select the ten finalists before final judging. Promising the fiercely ochlocratic YouTube community something and then taking it away, especially when a $25,000 cash prize is on the line, is not what we call a good PR move. Once the winner was announced message boards and comment sections (many of which Malibu has taken down) erupted with YouTubers crying foul. This conspiracy video was posted by an angry entrant suggesting that the winning video was made by the Malibu PR company.
Malibu Rum and the winning videographer, Ron Klineschmidt, both deny any wrong doing. A spokesman for Malibu told the NY Times that they simply had a problem with timing in contacting the finalists.
After reading the New York Times article and watching the videos, my first thought is, “God, that is a terrible video that won.” Then I noticed that the contest advertises celebrity judge Efren Ramirez and I thought “What!?! How could Pedro (as in “Vote for Pedro“) allow such a lapse in the democratic process?”
While I’d like to think that the PR reps behind all of this are busy either getting fired or fixing this mess, the official YouTube page for the contest still states that “Contest finalists will be posted in the coming days,” and Malibu Rum’s own homepage still asks visitors to “Enter the Malibu contest on YouTube to win a banana grove or $25k.” Oh yeah, did we forget to mention that the gag prize is an actual banana grove somewhere in a banana republic?
No matter what happens now, this contest is tainted, as is Malibu’s image in the user-generated video world. Let Malibu Rum be a cautionary tale to PR firms and marketing agencies who are thinking about dipping a toe into YouTube turbulent waters. Now, if you’ll excuse, it’s nearly noon, and I have a Long Island Iced Tea to attend to.
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