Vaughn Davis: Watercare advert ‘outrage’ just a social media misstep

A social media post shared on Watercare's platforms has been labelled as 'sexist' after suggesting women should take shorter showers. Photo / Watercare

OPINION

Did you hear the news? Auckland Council-owned outfit Watercare stopped traffic this week by publishing a social media post that encouraged “ladies” (I’ll come back to that) to spend less time in the shower to save water and reduce their power bills.

The post was illustrated with a Baby Yoda meme that’s been doing the rounds, showing the wee fellah in front of a raging fire – a reference to yet another meme about women supposedly liking hotter showers than men.

If you’re not outraged by any of that, I get you. I’m not either. And I’m not convinced that anyone really is.

For sure, perpetuating the idea that one gender is wasting time in the shower while the other one is busy changing the oil on the ute or hunting wildebeest with a crossbow isn’t helping anyone. It’s not what I’d post for my own business or any of our clients.

'Men will not be exempt from our short shower messaging,' said Watercare.

But sometimes people post stuff on social media that misses the mark. It’s what humans do, and it’s what I reckon we should expect brands to sometimes do too.

Great social media is like a conversation: spontaneous, human and imperfect. Taking a zero-risk approach, making sure every post goes through legal, risk and who knows what other layers of approval is a recipe for dullness.

Piling on when someone messes up makes things only worse, leading to more risk-aversion, more checking, more second-guessing and boring, ineffective communication. As a ratepayer and Watercare customer, I don’t want that.

I want Watercare to do exactly what it’s doing: try all sorts of ways to encourage all sorts of Aucklanders to look after the precious and occasionally scarce taonga - that’s right there in its name.

I think that joining the pile-on from a position of power – as one Auckland councillor did – is a bad look too. I’ve known plenty of social media community managers and can only imagine how it feels to have the boss of your boss’ boss publicly criticise your work.

Again, we shouldn’t base our social media posts on gender or other stereotypes. It’s a bit lazy and there are other ways to connect to audiences. People are human, though, so sometimes it happens. When it does, we listen to customer feedback, learn from the experience and try not to do it again.

As for the rest of us, let’s find a better summer hobby than piling on when someone slips up.

Oh, I promised I’d come back to the post’s use of the word “ladies”. At least some of the online pitchforks have tried to skewer Watercare for using a dated and sexist term to address women. Maybe I’m living in the past (2008, to be precise) but when I hear the word, I think Beyoncé rather than boys’ clubs.

Vaughn Davis is the owner of Auckland social media and advertising agency The Goat Farm.