By Tim Binnall
A public speaking school in Singapore was forced to issue an apology after they inadvertently sparked a panic by way of an ill-conceived publicity campaign featuring people dressed as clowns. The bizarre case reportedly unfolded last week when Speech Academy Asia deployed several of the harlequins to various elementary schools throughout the city-state in the hopes that the colorful characters would inspire parents to sign up their kids for classes. Alas, the concept had quite the opposite effect as the clowns spotted lingering around the schools led to numerous police reports about the mysterious strangers who, in some cases, were said to be using money to try and lure the children into following them.
Undoubtedly embarrassed by what they had caused, Speech Academy Asia quickly pulled the clowns from their assigned locations and issued a statement regarding the mayhem. "We would like to extend our sincere apologies for the cause of concern over the safety of your children," said the school, insisting that the claims associated with the harlequins were not true. "Our team does not offer any form of monetary rewards for children to follow them," they wrote with what one assumes was profound dismay over what they had done, "additionally, our promoters strictly do not take any children out of the vicinity."
While the academy pledged to put an end to the campaign immediately, it would appear the damage was already done, as they were lambasted by people online as well as local officials, with one Singapore Parliamentarian declaring that "I trust the police are investigating this. It’s not amusing and just plain dangerous." Others were simply stunned that the school did not anticipate the promotion going haywire with one individual musing "what the heck was your marketing team thinking?" And so, in the end, the Speech Academy Asia wound up getting a considerable amount of publicity from the incident, but it's likely not going to result in very many new students coming through the doors.