March 24, 2010
Speaking like a human isn’t quite enough
So, Nestle made a Facebook page. Commenters angry at Nestle’s time-honored disregard for the planet, exploited labor, and nursing mothers (and I’m sure I’m leaving some groups out) made their ire manifest on the page. Nestle took it like a Modern Multinational until some commenters used hacked versions of the Nestle logo as their profile photo. A Nestle person stepped in, went back and forth, used sarcasm, and whipped up a firestorm of Social Media scorn.
Andrew Leonard has a terrific post about the whole brouhaha, pointing out that the Nestle person is being attacked for speaking like a human being, letting his/her exasperation show. And I agree with Andrew that the Nestle person showed admirable non-corporate-speak humanness. Refreshing. Well done, Nestle. (Seriously.)
That’s Step One for Nestle. Unfortunately for Nestle, there’s a Step Two: Don’t be dicks. Then there’s Step Three: Stop your blithe laying waste to human values. And here’s a big hint: Do Step Three first and you won’t have such problems with those other Steps.
