Don’t get me wrong, we love people in animal costumes. It’s what arguably put us on the map (remember the chicken?).

But, difficult as it may be, there actually is a way to f’up that tried and true viral strategy. Check it out…

Phillips just ran a viral campaign in Singapore. Plenty of views, even a couple of mentions in the press, and a lot of action afterwards…unfortunately it may not have been the action they were looking for.

Some f’ing agency shot a video of a guy in a bear suit rummaging through trash cans. People saw it and freaked out, calling the police and the story spirals pretty much downwards after that…with keywords like ‘public apology’, ‘police investigation’, criminal charges’, ‘Phillips fined’ showing up in a lot of online chatter (I assume words like ‘agency fired’, ‘marketing manager let go’ will quickly follow suit).

Not quite the buzz Phillips was looking for I guess.

One resounding question remains in my mind.

WTF?