Ad Track: Negative PR in advertising travels fast online

— -- Dr Pepper recently teamed with celebrity "doctors," such as NBA great Julius Erving (Dr. J) and Kelsey Grammer (Dr. Frasier Crane on TV's Frasier), to bolster its brand. But given its recent public relations imbroglio, what it needs now is a savvy spin doctor.

The company has been bashed online after a Nov. 25 letter from the attorney for rock band Guns N' Roses charging Dr Pepper failed to deliver a promised free soft drink for every American if the band finally released its Chinese Democracy album this year.

The letter, which called the drink giveaway a "fiasco," was widely picked up and spread by bloggers last week.

Dr Pepper joins a growing list of marketers that have recently seen how quickly negative comments can spread online.

With blogs, short-post forums such as Twitter, video sites and other social-networking sites, "bad (publicity) spreads faster" than ever, says Pete Blackshaw, executive vice president at Web researcher Nielsen Online.

The rise of social media enables marketing mishaps "to (reach) a much larger audience in a much shorter time," says Peter Shankman, author of Can We Do That?! Outrageous PR Stunts That Work and Why Your Company Needs Them.

While there's no way to foresee every pitfall with a promotion, "Marketers need to think more like political advance people," Blackshaw says. "Political advance people are always scoping out what could go wrong, … and in an age of (viral communications) and consumer control, you really need to up the ante on advance work."

As in politics, others will seize on any marketing mess-up to further their own agenda.

Guns N' Roses had no formal tie with the Dr Pepper promotion but initially seemed pleased with it. In March, after the free soft-drink offer, it posted a statement that it was "very happy to have the support of Dr Pepper."

When the album went on sale on Nov. 23, consumers had 24 hours to sign up at DrPepper.com for a coupon for a free bottle of the soft drink. But the website collapsed under an avalanche of response. The botched promotion "ruined" the album's release, says the letter from Guns N' Roses attorney Alan Gutman.