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You may very well ask how–after the initial broadcast of fake names of Asiana pilots by KTVU after the San Francisco crash and the subsequent revelation that they were confirmed to KTVU by the summer intern for the National Transportation Safety board–things could possibly get worse for KTVU. Well, now KTVU has triggered what is now commonly referred to as the “Streisand effect” in its attempt to scrub all of the videos of their on-air blunder from YouTube. The stealth move has worked like a charm, except for all the reports about it, which basically makes them just about as stealthy as Inspector Clouseau....
Fans had made a to-be-published book by Paula Deen a top seller on Amazon, but the publisher, Random House, joined the list of business partners that have cut ties to the embattled chef....
The book deal was one of the last remaining lucrative business relationships for the embattled celebrity chef. Its cancellation came on a day when Sears, Kmart and J. C. Penney announced that they would stop selling products, including cookbooks, branded with her name. Since last week, the Food Network, Smithfield Foods, Walmart, Target, Caesars Entertainment, QVC and the pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk have decided to suspend or sever ties with Ms. Deen after her admission in a legal deposition that she had used racist language in the past and allowed racist, sexist, homophobic and anti-Semitic jokes in one of her restaurants. Ms. Deen was deposed on video as part of a discrimination lawsuit filed last year by a former employee....(New York Times)
There are many ways in which reputation-threatening and stakeholder relationship-threatening issues can be identified. Early identification and strategic action are key to dealing with issues successfully. So having tools in place which make it easy and intuitive for a public relations professional to identify issues are a boon for reputation protection and enhancement....
In the Twitter era, marketers have to be extra careful that what they put on their websites isn't offensive, even intentionally. Extra, extra careful. It’s a lesson Target took to heart this week, apologizing for a product-naming discrepancy that some fuller-figured shoppers found offensive. The kerfuffle started when self-described “Digital Maven” Susan Clemens was shopping on Target.com and noticed an odd thing: The same style of dress in the exact same color was labeled differently depending on the size. The name of the color on the plus-size version was suggestive, and not in a flattering way. Clemens tweeted her discovery, quickly garnering dozens of retweets....
... It's easy to Monday morning quarterback absent the facts at hand, but suffice to say, Apple should quickly re-focus on what filled its once-bountiful well of reputation capital. The company, as message-minded as it is, should also aggressively re-build bridges with the outlets/journalists that have called it out. Apple did get a small reprieve last week when Samsung was called out for over-hyping its Galaxy 4 launch (at Radio City). As for Jamie Dimon, I still believe he has enough reputation capital in his account to weather this latest Moby Dick of a storm. Hopefully, the passage of time will eventually allow him to return to steering his ship to calmer (and perhaps more regulated) waters....
Rogers Communications and AMC – the home of extremely popular shows such as Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, Mad Men, The Killing and Hell on Wheels – are in the midst ofnegotiating new terms for Rogers to carry AMC content. And as we’ve seen with other recent negotiations, most recently between the NHL and the NHLPA, the sticking point is usually money.
This shouldn’t be surprising. AMC delivers a great product and the popularity of its shows has grown exponentially. Therefore, AMC feels it’s fair that they receive more revenue.
However, a trend is now emerging where parties are engaging the court of public opinion far earlier in the negotiation process than ever before. AMC has even started a “Keep AMC in Canada” campaign to enlist their unholy legion of Walking Dead fans to apply pressure on Rogers....
Many companies work hard to create and maintain visibility. That's what keeps those of us ion advertising and public relations busy. But how much effort do those companies put into building and maintaining a good reputation? Some, like American Express and McDonald's, put heavy emphasis on PR, community relations and customer service as a way to secure a good reputation with customers and potential customers.
A survey just released by Mediabistro makes interesting reading. The poll, by Harris, got feedback from about 19,000 people at random....
What freelancer doesn’t know the anxiety and frustration of waiting for a way-past-due payment from a wayward client? While obsessively checking and re-checking our mailboxes to find the money that must surely be on its way and wallowing in the depths of I-finished-my-work-on-time-but-still-can’t-pay-my-bills-despair, we’ve sometimes found ourselves fantasizing about sabotage. But, because we like to think of ourselves as responsible, civil, and professional individuals (and because we’d like to ‘work in this town again’), we keep such delusions of diabolical grandeur to ourselves. Frank Jonen, who runs his own small Web design company, apparently had no such qualms about taking full-scale revenge when his client, Fitness SF, allegedly failed to pay him fairly for his work. In retaliation for this lack of proper compensation, Jonen replaced the Fitness SF website with an angry letter written on behalf of himself and “the tens of thousands of freelancers and small businesses out there facing larger corporations who can afford to starve them out” while urging the fitness club’s members to take a stand by cancelling their memberships and slamming the company on social media....
A lot of discussion and PR thought leadership have been focused on managing crises in this age immediate communications and networked audiences. However, a fascinating situation that’s unfolding right now between the New York Timesand Tesla Motors highlights the important opportunity brands have to tell their side of the story immediately and convincingly when they have a dispute with the news coverage, and it sure beats the daylights out of having a correction or clarification printed three days after the fact. Simply put, brands don’t have to take what they consider to be unfair or biased coverage lying down....
Auto firm Tesla is giving a New York Times reviewer a car. The goal was to show off Tesla's "electric highway" of charging stations for its electric car between Washington and Boston. The problem was that the car didn't make it.
...While national political attention was dominated by the fiscal cliff and a new Congress, environmental activists continued gearing up for what they believe to be the fight of the century. Rather than lick their wounds after the high-profile defeats of the last month, they leveraged them into outreach and engagement opportunities that are swelling their ranks.
Likes on the “Stop the Keystone Pipeline” Facebook page have grown to four times the number on the “Support the Keystone Pipeline Page.” YouTube is now teeming withvideos expressing personal and emotional appeals against the pipeline. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) now owns the top result for a Google search on “Keystone Pipeline, Nebraska.” The National Wildlife Federation claims the top spot for searches on “Keystone Pipeline, Danger.” A search for “Tar Sands” returns no fewer than five first-page results maintained by pipeline opposition groups. All the while, activists are leveraging relationships with high-profile bloggers to further sway public opinion and demonstrate compelling third-party support. As it has so many times in the past, the activist community is asserting its digital dominance. All of that online activity is translating into grassroots action. Protests are being carried out across the country. Petitions are being delivered to the White House in droves. And to keep the momentum building, 18 top climate scientists recently penned a letter to the president in strong opposition to the pipeline, writing that “the administration would be actively supporting and encouraging the growth of an industry which has demonstrably serious effects on climate.”...
The star Notre Dame football player enmeshed in a scandal over his apparent relationship with a fictional woman has engaged crisis specialist Hiltzik Strategies.
The Notre Dame linebacker, Manti Te’o, fell into the media crosshairslast week after Deadspin.com published a thorough examination of Te’o’s relationship with a woman -- widely reported as an inspirational story because of her battles with cancer and death in a car accident -- it found did not exist.
He has denied knowledge that the woman and story were fabricated through social media. Notre Dame’s influential athletic department has backed his denials.
Hiltzik Strategies, the firm of former Democratic political operative Matthew Hiltzik, has worked crises for high-profile personalities like Katie Couric, baseball star Ryan Braun and singer Justin Bieber. He is representing Te'o and his family....
We recently discussed what appeared to be the glaring hypocrisy of financial/insurance giant AIG. We grew interested after the release of what was supposed to have been a rousing ad campaign thanking American taxpayers for their (non-optional) support during the financial crisis even as the company was simultaneously considering suing the government. The suit would have claimed that the abnormally high interest rate charged by the fed during the bailout violated the Constitution’s Fifth Amendment, which protects “private property” against “public use, without just compensation”. While AIG ultimately decided not to back the lawsuit (ya think?), the story has already subverted the brand’s we’ve-cleaned-up-our-act message. The damage, as they say, is done....
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It’s now more evident than ever that CEOs who don’t engage in social media, may as well be conducting their business in a cave....
...CEOs and their executives ride shotgun in setting the cultural tone of the organization. Simply put, participation in social media promotes the use of social technology, which can only increase its competitive edge in adapting to technological market changes. Having a transparent and open organizational culture is imperative in establishing an effective social media strategy; it gives everyone a clear and common focus to tailor to the needs of the social consumer – a fact that escapes a lot of today’s CEOs.
BrandFog 2012 CEO Survey concerned this exact topic and reproduced some baffling results: - 82% of respondents were said to be more likely to trust a company whose CEO actively engages on Social Media. - 77% of respondents were recorded to be more likely to buy from a company whose mission and values are defined through their leaderships’ involvement in Social Media....
Food Network, Walmart, Caesars Entertainment…one by one, the many companies represented by Paula Deen are backing out on deals they’ve forged with the celebrity chef. The latest business to wash its hands of Paula Deen? Pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk.
The bad news continues for fallen idol Paula Deen, who, following allegations of racism, has been losing valuable deals left and right. Whether or not company leaders feel that Paula is actually a racist, they clearly do not wish to be associated with all the bad PR following this case.
It’s about time Walmart fielded a TV-advertising campaign that explains just why the stores are still so popular with Americans despite the disbelieving objections of elites that keep picking at the world’s biggest retailer for one reason after another. By focusing in a clear-eyed way in its new campaign, “The Real Walmart,” on the strengths of the company and how they benefit various huge constituencies—American consumers, Walmart workers, and Walmart’s supply-chain participants—the brand has a good shot at engendering more of the endemic kind of cultural goodwill that perpetually has escaped it.....
Corporations have spotted a gaping hole in the market left by traditional media and are attempting to fill it with their own forms of corporate media. But according to former-Financial Times journalist turned media entrepreneur Tom Foremski, corporates are failing to connect with their audiences and there are very few successful examples of the genre....
The titans of Silicon Valley need some personal public relations advisors. Marissa Mayer, Tim Cook, Meg Whitman, Scott McNealy and many others fail to grasp the most basic PR concepts. They don’t have to look far for good role models. David Packard, Bill Hewlett, Steve Jobs and Gordon Moore were masters at molding their public image....
As corporate public relations mistakes go, this one’s unlikely to earn Office Depot (NYSE:ODP) a spot in the hall of shame. But it was just the kind of screw-up made easier in the digital age. On Wednesday at around 7:20 a.m., the company accidentally and prematurely announced its merger with OfficeMax (NYSE:OMX), by tucking the major news inside its fourth-quarter earnings statement. The release disappeared shortly after, followed by silence from the companies and some media reports that the merger talks were still ongoing. Were they ironing out last-minute details of their nuptials? Apparently not: At 9:45 a.m., both companies put out official word announcing that it was a done deal and they were, in fact, coming together. Experts say they did the right thing by clearing up any confusion as early as possible. “Avoid the temptation to be cute,” says Scott Kurnit, CEO and founder of Keep Holdings, an e-commerce and advertising company. Here are five more memorable PR blunders....
The standoff has lasted nearly 24 hours. The company whose site was taken over claims the designer is blackmailing it. ...zAccording to Adweek, Fitness SF denies Jonen’s claim and is eager to be back online. It claims Jonen is blackmailing the company. While this online feud is sure to resolve soon, we can all sit back and bask in the glow of someone who took action, even if it was career suicide. It will also be interesting to watch how Fitness SF handles the crisis—at least everyone knows their URL now. Twitter is certainly buzzing with this news, and Fitness SF is taking the brunt of the blame...
War of words with NYT continues: Data from test car's "black box" shows reporter's damaging review was lie, says CEO. While the vast majority of journalists are honest, some believe the facts shouldn’t get in the way of a salacious story,” he wrote. “In Mr. Broder’s case, he simply did not accurately capture what happened and worked very hard to force our car to stop running.” A Times spokeswoman today reiterated that its story was “fair and accurate,” adding, “We are in the process of reviewing the specific claims in Tesla’s blog post and will respond to those when that review is complete. But in a post Tuesday responding to Musk’s tweets and other accusations he made in a CNBC interview, Broder defended his account as accurate....
...The Times pretty much disagreesin every respect. They stand by their story which said that the vehicle did not meet its own promises and that the battery failed, requiring the Model S make the last part of its journey on a flatbed truck.
It is not just "he said" vs "she said" however since Tesla published data captured by their onboard computer which seemed to back up some of what they claim....
Shel Holtz examines the challenge of communicating layoffs to employees and its impact on company reputation and other key audiences. the social media era makes it even more difficult to manage information..
...The first 90 seconds of the spot were fantastic. As a viewer, I learned some of the steps the nation’s leading beverage company is taking to provide us with healthier drinking options. It has more than 180 low- and no-calorie options, many of which have replaced higher-calorie offerings in school vending machines. It has created smaller, portion-controlled sizes as well as boldly stated the calorie count of each drink on its cans. It supports initiatives like the Boys & Girls Clubs that encourage kids and young adults to get active. These efforts have helped reduce the average calories per serving across the soda industry’s products in the United States by about 22 percent. That’s a fantastic story, if it stopped there. If Coca-Cola had admitted that overconsumption of its higher-calorie beverages has led to greater numbers of obese individuals while emphasizing its efforts to offer healthier beverage options, portion control and transparency in calorie counts, I’d applaud it (though would wonder why its message warranted a 90-second spot). But it didn’t admit the truth, and the ad didn’t stop there. At about the 90-second mark, Coca-Cola’s storytelling machine went off the rails. Instead of coming clean and admitting that it’s a source of the problem, it proclaimed that “all calories count, no matter where they come from.” The line was made intentionally vague because it implies something that is not true. While it’s true that all calories count, it’s untrue that they’re created equal, and that’s indisputable....
...this case will continue to raise further discussion and awareness about the power of a reputation as well as the implications of what happens when you are involved in a crisis. Social media will continue to be a platform where people come together to voice their opinions about a variety of topics ranging from brands to people. This is a growing issue in sports – as fans and the rest of the public, we want athletes to achieve impossible expectations in their sports while also presenting themselves in a positive image among their key audiences. However, are these expectations not realistic and can any athlete meet up to them? What about the role of the PR person who is representing these clients – if we know that the image if false, what is our professional and ethical duty?...
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Rather than trying to be sneaky, this TV station could have won the points for transparently responding to the mistaken intern post. Good lessons for any organization that tries to undo social media mistakes.