Over the past few days in Britain there has been a story about a gay couple who were thrown out of a pub for kissing. The pub has strategically avoided saying it is because the couple were gay but whether or not that is a problem is down to their own prejudices... however, they have missed a massive marketing opportunity by reacting defensively and clamming up about the situation. Their one representative, according to the news articles, seemed to be saying that they would have stopped a straight couple from kissing as well but this is not a positive for their business and is clearly just a stab at appearing to uphold equality values. Many local people were outraged at the gay couple being booted out so organised a 'kiss-in' where, reportedly, 700 people agreed to participate. Seven hundred people! FOR FREE! Due to this overwhelming protest they have closed their doors and will make no money tonight and have probably become unpopular with the locals because they have caused so much trouble.

So what should the pub company have done?

First: Regardless of why the particular landlord kicked out the couple they should have made a public announcement apologising for the pair being thrown out and either stating their rules clearly (if they do currently have rules that are fair on this issue) or send the landlord off for "training" then stand an open invite for all couples to come back. This would have kept them open today by negating the need for the protest entirely.

Second: If they didn't do my first point or if that didn't work they should have shut shop earlier this afternoon, bought a lot of love-heart balloons and whatever valentine's day leftovers they can find and decorated the pub. Following this they should then have posted on the Facebook group for the 'kiss-in' an apology for the misunderstanding and openly invited them to join in on this ad-hock late valentines evening. They should have also contacted local papers (plus the BBC) to make an open invite to all couples.

They would have had a LOT of interest, a LOT of revenue, a fantastic public image and probably won a huge amount of customer loyalty.

The stories:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-13087715

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-13096519