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The 10 Spiciest Reactions from UK Brands to Boris Johnson’s Resignation

by William Gadsby Peet

Jul 11, 2022•3 min read

What you'll learn:

From insulting waxworks to badly photoshopped chickens, the UK's social media managers have truly outdone themselves with their response to the demise of Bojo.

When you’re a digital marketing nerd, you always consume big news stories twice. The first time is the actual story itself with all the boring facts and figures, the second is the response on social media from brands trying to go viral.

And whether it’s a face-off over the legality of an insect-inspired cake, or the Twitterstorm that led to the iconic line ‘Sue, you’re shouting at tea‘, few countries do social media management better than the UK.

So when Boris Johnson finally resigned, it was never in any doubt that the brands of the UK would bring the heat with their social media reactions. Here are 10 of my favourite.

P.S. I’d like to pretend there are some lessons on how to do social media marketing well in this post (and there probably are), but the truth is I mainly wrote it because I don’t like Boris Johnson and it was a lot of fun.

1) Madame Tussauds

Along with being very funny, this is genuinely brilliant marketing. As a result, Madame Tussauds started trending, and they’ve seen a 120% increase in branded search terms on organic search.

2) BrewDog

Being the BrewDog marketing department must be a dream – ‘Hey, head brewer, marketing team here, can we create a new beer named after big trending news story X? Yes? Brill!’ Also, if ‘Boris Lie-PA’ doesn’t win that poll I’m going sober.

3) KFC

While the creative isn’t groundbreaking, I just love the fact KFC’s social media team have been holding a grudge for almost 3 years, waiting for the opportune moment to strike. It’s some proper jilted ex-lover energy and I’m here for it – hell hath no fury like a social media manager scorned!

4) Iceland

When affordable supermarkets start taking the mick, you really know it’s time to go! I also love how much the design team at Iceland reflect the brand – as a social media creative, this screams simple and low-budget in a good way.

5) THIS

 

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A post shared by THIS – Plant-based Food (@this.uk)

Brilliant understanding of your target market here from THIS – I bet the Venn Diagram of vegans and people who don’t like Boris Johnson is basically a perfect circle!

6) Burger King

Some real shade among fast-food brands in general for Boris Johnson 🍔

7) Zoopla

This is just *chef’s kiss* design work – to be so responsive in print really is very impressive.

8) House & Garden Magazine

House & Garden Magazine asking the big questions!

9) John Lewis

Who knew No 10’s wallpaper would end up being such a sticky issue (terrible pun 100% intended).

10) Paddy Power

Or this one…

Or this one…

Written by William Gadsby Peet

Will co-founded Literal Humans in 2020 after nearly a decade working as a digital marketing consultant and fractional CMO. He has helped launch dozens of brands and products into an array of different markets, and is an expert in performance marketing and growth strategy. Before getting into marketing, Will was a journalist.

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