Last week, online pawn shop Pawngo dreamed up a controversial publicity stunt that entailed delivering 900 pounds of Butterfingers to Copley Square in Boston.  A Pawngo PR representative stood by with a sign that read, “Thank you, Wes Welker.  Pawngo.”  For the few of you who don’t know, Wes Welker, a New England Patriots’ receiver, dropped a pass from Tom Brady late in the game, setting the stage for a spectacular game-winning Giants drive.

Pawngo received a lot of media attention, some of which was positive, but the tide turned as a groundswell of New England anger gained momentum.  The stunt spiraled out of control as negative fan feedback begot negative media attention.

Publicity stunts can be useful tools to raise visibility in a hurry, but the Pawngo fiasco offers a few lessons about stunts.

Know your audience. New England fans are known to be fanatical.  Not to expect a visceral reaction from such an in-your face taunt is naïve.

Conduct a cost-benefit analysis.  Publicity stunts are volatile by nature, compounded by the virality of social media and 24-hour news.  When considering a controversial stunt like this one, make sure that the risks are worth the benefits.  In this case, were the benefits of national media attention worth the negative brand sentiment now attached to Pawngo?  Is mixed national media attention worth potentially alienating a large market like New England?  How large of an uptick in Web traffic and, ultimately, gained users would be worth these drawbacks?

Make a connection. The best publicity stunts have some kind of connection to the brand executing the stunt.  In 2006, ProShade, a company that creates a combined visor-sunglasses-lanyard doodad, offered the National Park Service $4 million to put logo visors on the faces of Mount Rushmore to protect the presidents’ heads.  The event was covered by reporters looking for a fun story even though it was obviously a ploy to curry media favor.  More importantly, the stunt’s connection to ProShade was obvious and created a lasting impression.

By contrast, the connection between Pawngo and the Butterfinger stunt is inscrutable.  Even if all the media coverage had been positive, the benefit would have been fleeting.  It wasn’t a strong enough connection to make the memory last and brand recognition endure.

Don’t make a pitch in your apology. If the wheels of a stunt fall off, apologize swiftly.  Under duress from the rising publicity stench, Pawngo CEO and founder Todd Hills issued an apology.  Unfathomably, Hills slips in a sales pitch into the middle of his apology: “Pawngo has been changing the world of providing credit to individuals and small businesses, and our business has grown dramatically in the past year.” (Still don’t see the connection to Butterfingers and Wes Welker).  An apology that might have gone some ways toward salving a wounded brand image came across as disingenuous and (still) self-serving.  Check out the comments to get a picture of how people reacted.

Stunts are tricky things.  Business owners and entrepreneurs will sometimes go to great lengths to drum up publicity for their companies, but know what you’re getting yourself into.  Make sure the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.  If there is risk involved, have a plan prepared to mitigate the collateral brand damage.  And, for crying out loud, do NOT peddle your wares in the middle of your mea culpa if it comes down to it.