Neal's Yard: You Ask They Sulk

Neal’s Yard have committed a grave PR error by backing out of the Guardian’s You Ask They Answer debate on homeopathic treatments and going into hiding. Twitter has been in a twirl about it all morning.

In an age when there is a need for transparency in all things, Neal’s Yard have to fight to support their brand – and part of that fight is in online debates with informed, and often critical, consumers.

If they can’t deal with the fact that people demand a conversation, the Neal’s Yard brand risks going further into meltdown than it has already; just look at the scathing comments all over the net and at the Twitter maelstrom.

People are fed up with lies and evasion and all brands must address this. The response of Neal’s Yard to probing questions is a salient lesson for other brands in what not to do.