Plays tricks to limit consequences of Off! Botanicals recall — SC Johnson
Information regarding recall is on a non-descript domain with a restricted robots.txt file.
SC Johnson, maker of Off! bug sprays, is recalling certain 4 oz bottles of its OFF! Botanicals Insect Repellent. It’s undertaking some website and search engine tricks to limit the long term consequences.
Although SC Johnson is publicizing the recall, it is taking some precautions to limit long term consequences in search engines.
Yesterday it registered a number of domain names related to the recall (which it calls a “recovery”):
- offbotanicalrecall.com
- offbotanicalrecovery.com
- offbotanicalsrecall.com
- offbotanicalsrecovery.com
- offrecall.com
- offrecovery.com
- scjohnsonrecall.com
- scjohnsonrecovery.com
- scjrecall.com
- scjrecovery.com
None of these descriptive domain names resolve.
There’s a link to the recall on the official Off.com site, but it’s labeled “recovery” instead of recall. People search for recall, not recovery, so this will limit its exposure.
When you click the link on Off.com, it takes you to the non-descript web address botanicals-info.com instead of content on Off.com. Firms like to use a domain name that doesn’t include their full brand when publishing recall information to avoid brand-damaging effects in search engines.
In this case, SC Johnson also adjusted the robots.txt file for the website to limit what shows up on Google and other search engines.
At least by publicizing the recall, SC Johnson is doing more than what Guthy-Renker did with a Proactiv recall a number of years ago. Guthy-Renker followed the textbook of not using the product name in the domain (PABottleReplacement.com instead), excluded the site from search results using robots.txt, and registered lots of alternative domain names that didn’t resolve.
I’ll admit it must be hard to be a consumer products firm. The reason for the recall: it might be easier than intended to remove the sprayer from the bottle. “In the unusual circumstance where a consumer could remove the sprayer from the bottle and drink its contents, the liquid could be harmful if swallowed,” the firm explained.
(Photo from botanicals-info.com)
