PR lessons from the Mitchum itching crisis

Deodorant brand Mitchum has faced criticism in recent weeks as products across its core range are reported to have caused rashes, burns and itching for swathes of its customer base. In response, its customers have been turning to TikTok to share their woes, with multiple posts gaining millions of views.

Mitchum was initially slow to respond to the posts, unlike the national media who were quick to cover consumer concerns, running stories on people being forced to leave work as a result of the discomfort.

“Typical consumer behaviour often means that cosmetics are a repeat purchase based on long-built trust, often bought without thinking as a necessary addition to the week’s shopping,” explained comms expert Richard Merrin, CEO at Spreckley PR.

“Losing this type of trust can be disastrous and alienate customers to the point of no return. There are plenty of alternatives on the market which until now, haven’t made anyone on TikTok itch.”

Below, Spreckley’s CEO, Richard Merrin outlines the lessons to be taken from Mitchum’s response to the crisis:

Mitchum’s Instagram posts

Pinned at the top of the Mitchum Instagram page are three posts, all shared over a week and landing more than a few days after the issue received widespread attention. They are as follows:

• The first told customers the issue was minor and limited to a small number of batches.

• The next came a few days later, and offered an apology to customers that were still experiencing issues and alongside a series of FAQs.

• A third post admitted an additional affected batch and finally offered a cause of the issue: a change in the manufacturing process of raw materials used in the deodorant.

Consumers were found in the comments of the first post, lamenting Mitchum’s underplaying of what they felt was a much bigger crisis. Many highlighted that the ingredients in their product had changed, something that wasn’t mentioned until the second statement arrived. By post three, all sense of control has been lost and trust becomes harder to win back.

When making a public statement in a crisis, try not to minimise the concerns of your core customer base. Own it, be clear and lay out the action you are taking to resolve the issue. Whether that action is sufficient falls outside of the remit of your comms team, but it’s preferable to back up your words with adequate response.

Please hold, your custom is important to us

Mitchum offered its customers compensation, but its statements put the onus on the consumer to arrange this themselves. Rather than be proactive in making amends, offering discount codes or vouchers on top of compensation, customers are left to fight for their money back when many of them won’t have the time to do so.

Under each of the three Instagram posts were comments left by Mitchum apologising for delays in responding to customers.The response does little but create further mistrust, giving the perception that the organisation hopes consumers don’t go to the trouble of waiting by the phone for hours.

Keep it simple but clear

Temporary or not, any irritation caused by a cosmetic is too much. Calling it temporary at the top of your initial statement will do nothing but alienate your customers.

While we’re undoubtedly in the age of the Instagram infographic, your outward-facing crisis statements shouldn’t look similar. Instead, keep them concise. Downplaying the apparent severity of the issue is not only unwise given the events that followed, but unnecessary too and only sets you up for further scrutiny.

Many commenters have demanded more specific information in order to seek adequate medical care. As it stands, consumers remain in the dark about what has actually happened.

You’d also be wise to include some mention of the situation on the homepage of your website too, easily directing people to the necessary information. Instead, Mitchum’s homepage features a link to their profile on X, accessible via a hyperlinked logo that hasn’t been correct since 2023, leading users to a page that hasn’t actually posted since 2016.

What’s in a name?

Finally, perhaps a little foresight could have helped Mitchum to predict the predicament they now find themselves in prior to choosing the name for their brand.

If you’re in the cosmetics game, let’s ditch the word ‘itch’. Otherwise, you open your brand up to less than creative slogans like ‘I’ve got the Mitchum itch’. Perhaps a rebrand might be apt anyway.