Durex finds little protection on social media

To promote an emergency condom delivery service, Durex thought it would be good to ask Facebook fans to vote for which city they’d like to see the service launched.The top three locations were Singapore with just a bit more than 1,000 votes, Kuala Lumpur with 1,402 nominations and Batman, Turkey, with 1,720 votes.Aside from the fact that the city is named after the caped superhero, other signs also suggest that Batman’s win is a prank and not from the promiscuous.Here is some history to prove why: Batman is conservative Islamic town nested in the valleys of Southwest Turkey with just a bit more than 380,000 people. The area was once a religious centre back in 4th to 6th centuries AD and prospered only after the discovery of oil.Batman further came into the attention of the media when its mayor filed a lawsuit against Warner Bros for taking the name of the city for the superhero without prior consent.Durex’s vote was conducted by users typing in their preferred destination in a text box. After the campaign finished in April, the site remained stagnant and an error message pops up for voters who wanted to participate past the deadline.Though pranks and negative feedback are a part of the package when brands enlist on social media, situations like these can be easily avoided if Durex had just employed a drop down menu of cities within consumers’ expectation.