Oh, dear… Oh, DEAR… OH, DEAR! I flinched involuntarily when I read the news release headline. And, as an English speaker, you might, too. Bimbo is a major Mexico-based holding company that should know better…
I can understand how this happened. But I can’t excuse GB for not performing due diligence before distributing their latest news release…
A clear and present PR disaster…
Wait for it… The otherwise standard advisory buzzed down the food news wire like any other news release. But landed in thousands of editors’ in-boxes with a deafening ‘thud’!
Grupo Bimbo invites girls from 22 countries to
participate in ‘The Bimbo Dream’
They actually sent it out in English like that. The company’s native language of operations is Spanish. But wasn’t there SOMEONE in the company who saw it pre-release who was sharp enough to catch it?
According to Wikipedia: “Grupo Bimbo, S.A.B. de C.V. (also known simply as Bimbo) is a Mexican multi-national food company with a presence in over 33 countries located in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa. It has an annual sales volume of 15 billion dollars and is listed on the Mexican Stock Exchange with the ticker BIMBO.”
“Grupo Bimbo has 134,000 employees, 196 bakery plants, 3 million points of sale, a distribution net-work with 57,000 routes all over the world,” Wikipedia continues. “The company has more than 100 brands and 13,000 products.”
Nevertheless…
The news release does clarify GB’s intenet: “BIMBO brand, a Global Partner of FC Barcelona and Main Partner of FC Barcelona Women, are searching for 49 girls from different countries to participate in the second edition of ‘The Bimbo Dream’. The company has launched a selection process in 22 coun-tries to choose 42 girls between the ages of 10 and 13. Additionally, BIMBO will invite seven girls from its social programs, ‘Dream Champions’ in Central America and ‘Futbolito Bimbo’ in South America, to take part in the initiative.”
The vast majority of the countries in which GB operates are predominantly Spanish-speaking. In fact only 3 – Canada, the US and the UK – use English as their primary language for day-to-day commu-nications.
Fair is fair…
Bimbo DID make one good choice: In Canada, it bills its girls’ soccer program as ‘Dempster’s Dream’. Dempster is the Canadian bakery brand owned by Bimbo – a company with a long an respectable history, known for quality products and as a good corporate citizen.
I’m thinking someone (here, at Dempster’s, and probably at ‘partners’ the US and UK, too) caught the ‘Bimbo Dream’ disaster-in-the-making and altered their versions of the ads before release. But the news release still went out with the troubling headline here. And I assume in those other two markets, as well.
My take
There is more than one advertising-world ‘Worst Of…’ award for goof-ups like this. I therefore nomi-nate GB for the 2025 edition of all of them.
The ‘Dream’ event is apparently, for girls aged 10 – 13. Their parents or official guardians are required to, “upload a video to the competition’s social networks and share it on the official website. In the video, applicants should introduce themselves, explain why they want to join the event, and display their passion for soccer.”
(I can’t think of a worse word than ‘passion’ to use in that context…)
And I can’t help but observe that this is the second year GB has run the ‘Dream’ promotion. Did no one in the world catch this obvious, embarrassing, potentially disastrous faux pas last year?
It’s too early for an April Fool’s joke, folks! Direct your comments and/or condolences to: Mario Enrique Sánchez, Global External Communications Director of Grupo Bimbo…
(Contest details available at their own website…)
~ Maggie J.