At the risk of P4A becoming a blog about Jordan/Katie Price, she hit the headlines again this week with the news that Asda has dropped her from its breast cancer publicity campaign. The supermarket giant made the move following comments on her ITV show which angered cancer sufferers and campaigners.
Jordan/KP had been used by Asda to mark the 12th anniversary of the retailer’s Tickled Pink campaign.
The retailer moved to quell anger among cancer victims who reacted to comments she made on her reality show What Katie Did Next last week about scars on her breasts caused by surgery.
An Asda spokeswoman posted a news release on a forum hosted by Breast Cancer Care which said:
‘Nobody was happy with what Katie said on the show, especially us. The last thing we want to do is upset anyone and so in light of the conversations we have all had over the past couple of days we won’t be using Katie in any publicity shots.’
Katie Price aka Jordan The P4A Prescription
Sounds sensible at first glance. On such a sensitive subject it is normally better to be safe than sorry. However, did both parties miss a trick here? Rather than just “dump” Jordan from its campaign, Asda had a golden opportunity deliver an educational message. Why not explain WHY such comments are insensitive and HOW Jordan could help in the future?
She is a woman with a heck of a media profile and is PR-savvy enough to know when bridges needed to be built. I think Asda was correct to criticise Jordan but then both parties should have pulled together to deliver the message to an even bigger audience post-outrage.
I suspect both of them have missed out. Asda has lost a major celebrity tie-up and Jordan/KP looks insensitive and has lost a contract but the biggest loser out of all of this, is the campaign itself, which could have benefited from a public apology and greater dissemination of this vitally important message.
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