As far as backfiring media stunts go, this has to be right up there. You cannot be serious? Trying to claim it’s ‘not political’ is pretty disingenuous - everything Musk has his hand in is absolutely political, and tying your brand to his in any way is pretty much poisoning yourself…
Would have to agree on this – it sends out the wrong signals on many fronts. If they wanted an iconic branded EV for promotional use – a VW IDBuzz commercial van would have been a much better option both from an image stand point and practicality.
The Buzz is also new to the US market, so I’m sure VW would have also happily played along for the extra exposure.
Yes, it’s a bad sign. Tho’ Huel’s marketing has always seemed to be aimed more at muscular tech-culture types than to us pinko tree-huggers, so embracing Elon Musk’s Hot Wheels fantasy futurism doesn’t seem all that surprising. But still, bleugh.
I think from a brand image point of view – tree hugging would be much more preferable to putting money in the pocket of a ketamine addled sociopath, who literally donates (to avoid being sanctioned) said trucks to Chechen and Russian mercenaries to convert to weapons mounted NSTV’s (non-standard tactical vehicles) for use in Ukraine.
It’s just a thought
Pretty easy to come up with mass appeal/less controversial marketing collabs that benefit both parties, like……
Much better!
I’ve often thought Huel could be missing a trick by not marketing towards boomers: folks who might not be so into body culture, nutrition-on-the-go nor be constantly ‘smashing goals’, but are maybe even more concerned with health and sustainability, and might be more likely to live alone and be less interested and/or able to worry about shopping and cooking, . Seems that Huel could be good for a lot of older people, but the marketing seems less accommodating. More cybertruck than campervan.
Thank you for your feedback, we’re sorry our recent post caused any confusion or frustration. We want to reaffirm that Huel stands for inclusivity, health, and sustainability.
Our community means everything to us and we’ll keep listening and learning as we move forward together.
Hmm wonder why …
Oh yeah! They’ve got all the money.
Yeah, I saw it here.
Yeah, as far as social marketing gaffs go – it wasn’t quite a Kendall Jenner Pepsi protest ad debacle – but it wasn’t great either and, if nothing else, a lesson to not rely on bots to respond to user comments. Especially Meta’s bots.
Cringey cringe.
Who, young folks? I thought the received wisdom was that millennials struggle to get ahead whilst boomers are sitting pretty on all their capital. Generally-speaking.
Muscular tech types vs tree huggers.
Oh I get it, ‘tree-huggers’ conjures up the idea of impecunious drop-out hippies. I should’ve written ‘silver surfers’, probably driving Teslas.
Mind you, it’s a shame if Huel is marketing itself primarily to the affluent and excluding the hoi polloi. Some might see Huel as a luxury lifestyle enhancement, but others might appreciate it more as a reliably cost-effective health product. An ‘Essential’, if you will.
For the non-social media savvy amung us… Why is “broscience” a hashtag? Hasn’t Huel spent years trying to educate people on food facts?
I’m still trying to figure out why it’s called the most divorced truck in history too – is it because it is (apparently) the weapon of choice purchase for recently divorced husbands (apocryphal) or that it’s the car with the most cancelled orders ever (>2 million deposits put down but only converted to 11,688 actual sales (99.4% of orders cancelled) ?
Wow, that is just terrible. Maybe it’s a culture thing because I wouldn’t want anything I touch associated with that
Please tell me Huel marketing hasn’t use the term ‘broscience’ anywhere ever.