Last week, from humble beginnings an amazing story grew out of the social media revolution.

A brilliant artist under the Moniker “The Hidden World of Eloise” noticed that Paperchase were using some of her images in their range of goods. Clearly plagiarised. It seems she wrote to the Company who ignored her. She faced a choice – sue them with the obligatory legal bill and uncertainty in the County Court. Or ‘blog’ and ‘twitter’ about it.

The story is now reasonably well documented, but her blog post was picked up on Twitter and re-tweeted around the world. The story spread like wildfire!

As I write this, it seems that Paperchase have chosen the Ostrich approach to this PR. It is difficult to understand how they think they will ‘win’. Their web site suggests – “Paperchase is the undisputed brand leader in design lead and innovative stationery in the UK.” I think they mean ‘design led’? Or at least ‘led by someone else’s designs’.

Surely, they must realise that the damage being done to them by twitterers and bloggers around the globe is huge.

To some extent the original ‘crime’ could have been quickly dealt with; instead the lack of a response might finish off this brand. I will certainly think twice about going into the shop. They don’t have much I really want, but they have made a foray onto the High Street. I am unhappy that they think they can steal someones work and then ignore them when they point it out. They don’t deserve a loyal customer base.

Perhaps someone ought to take them to one side, quickly – and get them to eat a ton of humble pie and give a ton of cash to Eloise – wherever she is hidden? She has actually suggested that they give some money to charity…

We live in a new age – the Court has rules which are designed to filter out spurious claims – and make sure parties who have disputes try and settle them without recourse to them. Twitter and blogging, on the other hand, is pretty much unregulated and truly is a people power medium.

There are two key messages here. Firstly, never hide anything from the public (especially if it is damaging) and secondly, don’t underestimate consumers – they don’t like corporations v ordinary people disputes.

UPDATE 17.2.10

It seems that Paperchase have decided to ‘come clean’. Although I am not entirely convinced that their published apology is quite good enough. It does read as though this is everyone else’s fault. I think the damage done. Will we forgive an forget? – thought not!

Lesson three – when you have been caught and decide to ‘apologise’ make sure it sounds genuine and sincere and put it on the front page of your web site – not buried in the ‘contact us’ section!

I think they need some help on branding (and how not to train-crash one) – I will put them in touch with my mate John Lyle.

Oh, and just in case you were wondering – the statement that the work, “was definitely not based on Hidden Eloise’s” might not really stand up to much scrutiny by the man on the Clapham Omnibus!

UPDATE 28 February 2010

Have a look at Hidden Eloise’s latest post about this mess! I am not sure that those responsible for stealing the designs are really doing themselves any favours! I started my blog-post to draw attention to the David & Goliath story – and to highlight how not to do PR! Not much seems to have changed!

I always thought (and was taught) that a mistake can actually be turned into positive PR – by doing the right thing and winning the customers back! See this article. Paperchase and Gathernomoss take note!! And dirty tricks won’t really help – especially if you leave your fingerprints all over email comments – and you get traced back to Paperchase!