This is the buzz of this week. Poweo, newcomer on the French electricity market, now feeling the pressure of the competition, has conducted a first viral operation that has not gone unnoticed.

Everything started with this spot broadcast only on the Web, during the rugby world cup, presenting French national player Sébastien Chabal reloading his batteries by plugging his fingers into the power socket. The exact contrary of what children are taught!

The spot has been harshly criticized by bloggers and internet users and has immediately generated bad buzz. One understands why…

Directly contacted by one blogger, Poweo’s management answered immediately with the following statement:

“Dear Sir,

We are sensible to your reaction and will from today on take the video out of all web sites on which we can find it. This animation, exclusively planned for the Web, was meant to create a link to the rugby world cup and the French team’s amazing performance through one of its emblematic figures. We take the emotion this has stirred very seriously and have decided to stop this advertising campaign. We remain at your disposal and thank you again for contacting us in this matter.

Yours,

Ivan Roussin, Communication Director Poweo”

Since then the video has been deleted from DailyMotion (but not from YouTube).

Bad buzz or not, Poweo has definitely burnt its fingers.