A Wren Says

It’s the slow crawl towards you. First at a distance, now faster and closer than before. As soon as you untwisted the cap on your Delicía Drench Body Cream from Sol de Janeiro, it was inevitable. The wolf spiders would be on their way. Or that is what one review and some redditors would have you believe.

In perhaps one of the most bizarre PR problems of last few years Sol de Janeiro was accused of using spider pheromones (or the equivalent ingredient) in their then newest scent. In December of 2023, someone posted the review on Sephora: “If you’re scared of wolf spiders – watch out for these lotions lol.” From there multiple reddit pages and other reviews were born with many others claiming to also see spiders as a result of donning the scent.

Now, there were also just as many pages, articles, and video debunking the theory, but the damage was done. People who already had fears of spiders were now scared to buy the product.

Word of mouth can work wonders for your business because it spreads so easily. People trust other users of products. It seems credible. The problem is that it isn’t always accurate. It isn’t always the story you want to tell.

If you’re building a low-cost awareness building strategy and only relying on world of mouth, think again. Make sure to find ways to control your narrative, so you don’t end up having to deal with a web of lies.