Social media marketing is a relatively new phenomenon on the advertising industry and it has led companies to contract influential figures to promote their products. This is usually done by either by talking about the product forthrightly or by mentioning the product seamlessly in the post.
Well, Biko Zulu, the famous writer is known for his great stories on his blog like the widely shared story about Jadudi which ended up starting the #1MillionForJadudi hashtag that led to people contributing for Jadudi’s healthcare bill. This time however, Biko Zulu is trending for the wrong reasons thanks to a post that was shared on his social media accounts. (Facebook and Instagram).
The post was about a hard hitting story of a rape ordeal and depression a young woman went through, but the issue people pointed out was the product placement towards the end of the post, which made people all riled up.
Here are the comments people posted about the post made by Biko on Facebook. Most people were quite mad about the juxtaposition of the story and the product placement.
When the story was shared on Twitter later on, it caused an uproar where they condemned Biko for the post just like how people on Facebook did before.
https://twitter.com/ShikoNguru/status/795572486985449472
Eh Johnie Walker peeps decided to use a rape victim and a Bipolar patient as their pitching point for the drink.
— La Sape Kiprop (@mokayah) November 7, 2016
In the year 2016, someone is using the story of a lady who was raped while drunk to sell alcohol.😡
— Sha (@Shadongo) November 7, 2016
https://twitter.com/bintiM/status/795571007444680704
https://twitter.com/Lucykims/status/795569932998152193
Like that's the worst use of an influencer and or individual's personal struggle to push a campaign
— Sarah Waiswa (@LAfrohemien) November 7, 2016
He has since deleted the post and issued an apology to his audience which has been quoted verbatim below.
We appreciate your comments on the last post. Our intention was not to offend anyone’s sensibilities, it was inappropriate. We have since pulled down the post and we sincerely apologize for this.
