Huawei marketing staff behind New Year iPhone PR gaffe faces disciplinary action

Huawei is reported to be disciplining the marketing folks behind its recent PR gaffe of using an iPhone to wish millions around the world Happy New Year. According to an article on Reuters, the news outlet saw an internal memo which read that there was “procedural incompliance and management oversight". As such, one of the employees, a digital marketing director, is also said to have his pay frozen for about a year. Others will also face reduced salaries and demotion. The article also said that the incident occurred because digital agency Sapient faced “VPN problems” on the desktop and as such, an iPhone with a roaming SIM card was used to send the message on time.  Marketing has reached out to Huawei and Sapient for a statement. The incident first came to light when netizens called out the brand for tweeting a New Year message through Apple’s iPhone Twitter app on its official Huawei Technologies Twitter account. The post was subsequently taken down and re-posted without the mention of it being tweeted via an iPhone. This is not the first time Huawei has been caught in a situation such as this. In April 2018, Huawei’s brand ambassador actress Gal Gadot was mocked for promoting her collaboration with the brand using Apple’s iPhone Twitter app too. Although the post was removed and re-posted via an Android, screenshots of the gaffe were shared online by then. Gadot clarified through her publicist that she does not use an iPhone and “loves” her Huawei P20 and Mate10Pro.