One really efficient hoax - Karen from Denmark, the single mother looking for her baby's father - should get a prize for creative PR

Some might say it’s stupid. I’d say it’s brilliant. VisitDenmark, a tourism agency, ran a viral campaign with huge potential and great results, actually. Though it wasn’t quite the best idea, mostly because the tourism agency basically said “Any kind of publicity is publicity”, almost one million people watched the video with the single mom searching online for her baby’s father. Karen was supposedly drunk one and a half years ago, she had sex with a tourist and got pregnant. From this to promoting “sexual tourism” is only one step. Still, it can be efficient

Mashable is the blog that made the hoax popular, though there were quite a few comments on YouTube saying the video just can’t be real. Considering the implications and the controversy, the idea is actually great. As long as they assume the full responsibility for all reactions, it’s fine. Of course, the idea of “sexual tourism” will generate a pretty nasty image for the tourism agency, but in the end, just think about it: cheap PR, right?

It’s interesting to follow this advertising trend regarding tourism. You can recall “The Best Job In The World” campaign for that island in Australia, which won the Grand Prix at this year’s Cannes Lions. This is quite similar, except the part where there’s no job, but there’s “business”, even if we’re talking about “sexual business”.

How cheap is this Danish Tourism PR?

First of all, you might consider the strategy is cheap as in low. May be, as long as it’s confounded with promoting “sexual tourism”. On the other hand, that doesn’t mean it can’t be efficient. Almost one million people watched the video and lots more will watch it, despite the fact it was removed. Copies are published on YouTube, so it’s still accessible to the public. As long as it will attract tourists as much as 2% of the viewers, that means it’s efficient. And let’s look at the big bright side: the huge brand exposure for Denmark.

Regarding the price payed to the creative agency, it can’t be that expensive.  Which is good for the business, as long as the video went viral in just a few days and has already become a PR case study. Why so? Again, for the huge attention drawn to Denmark and Copenhagen. So, are you ready to visit the country?

Is bad publicity actually becoming good publicity? As long as VisitDenmark announced shortly that it was just a campaign, and the countries image wasn’t affected (and I strongly believe it didn’t had the time to affect Denmark’s image), yes, it is.