B.J. Novak said Cadbury Eggs have gotten smaller! So what did Cadbury say?

Though this post does stray a bit from it's guerilla roots, i am writing about this to show how much the internet can work for or against companies that have never began to believe that it would. Now this is from about a year ago, but I just found it and it's fun to see what the impact was. It's also my blog and I can do whatever the hell I want. It's also a pain in the ass to find anything sexy about easter.

To give you some back story, check out the youtube of B.J. Novak from The Office explain his problem with last years Cadbury Eggs.

(Note that either Cadbury or NBC has taken the clip down from youtube so you'll have to do w/ this link)

In a seemingly random and silly outing of this on Conan Obrien, it caused a mini-storm on the internet. Now the cadbury site has changed it's FAQ, wording the reason behind the size change to a more corporate answer. You can run into the video on all kinds of social sites and sweet innocent cadbury felt a little heat.

This initially got my attention because if felt like a bit of a random pr nightmare and i wanted to investigate more, but the deeper i dug, the more i feel that cadbury didn't make the best out of their situation.

Here's how i see it. They were thrust into the limelight in a very non-positive way, but as we all know, it's all about the follow through. Did they take this opportunity and make that lemonade?

Nope! Cadbury just sat on their ass and did nothing. Here's a couple of reasons why Cadbury should have gotten a new agency.

1. Searching for Cadbury Creme Eggs on google, the Cadbury site (which is lame, but i'm sure cost them an arm and a leg) comes up a very unimpressive 6th. That's just laziness folks! If you don't believe that your brand should strive to make the #1 spot under candy distributors and wikipedia entries than you obviously don't understand interactive marketing and or you don't care. My bet is on the prior.

2. Their site has a loading page and filled with a bunch of games. I know this may seem like a seemingly unimportant observation but haven't we gotten any further since 1997? It's been over a decade folks. Get another agency! The one you got is laughing all the way to the bank.

If you're company is thrust into the public eye like Cadbury was last year, you need a PR team that can spin this baby and use the momentum of the less favorable light to get your brand some new eyeballs! Don't be so proactive that you forget how to react!