Wiggles PR disaster shows media interviews ain’t child’s play

Posted on January 23, 2012 by Gerry

TV interview alert!! Not that global kiddies brand The Wiggles should be expect to be PR slicksters, but this bumbling, stumbling interview is so cringeworthy…not just because of the lack of PR preparation (who’d'a thunk Rich Wilkins could be such a probing Kerry O’Brien type??) but due to the lack of emotional intelligence or empathy shown by the band to the now-dumped Wiggle (“What about Sam…whaddya mean?”. Yet what kind of maturity should we expect from performers who spend all day singing songs and talking burble to infant audiences? Hot potato, hot potato indeed.

Tony Abbott – loose lips sink ships

Posted on January 20, 2012 by Gerry

Australian Liberal leader Tony Abbott has opened 2012′s PR Disaster contender list with an on-air gaffe comparing the sinking of the Costa Concordia to boat arrivals in Australia, News Limited reports: “Speaking on Triple M Adelaide’s morning show yesterday morning Mr Abbott was asked: “This is just a bit from left field, the captain from the Costa Concordia wants to know if you need any help with your boat policy?” Abbott replied: “Well that was one boat that did get stopped, wasn’t it,” and almost immediately was forced into damage limitation mode. He alluded to a lack of taste/judgement, but then attacked Labor pollies (quite rightly) who had tried to make editorial capital from his not so slick quip.

Australia’s 2011 PR Disasters Awards announced

Posted on January 9, 2012 by Gerry

For the second consecutive year, Qantas has topped the list of the annual PR Disasters Awards conducted by PR watchdog and blogsite PRdisasters.com. And for the first time in the awards’ history, the airline had three embarrassing PR glitches feature in the year’s top ten most talked about PR nightmares. Here are Australia’s Top 10 PR Disasters for 2011 (biggest disaster first):
1. Qantas grounding – business decision that inconvenienced and angered a nation
2. Qantas luxury Tweet – poorly conceived Twitter promo which drew ire not idolising
3. Brendan Fevola – termination of troubled star’s contract with Brisbane Lions
4. Tony Abbott – mute, shaking-head TV interview freeze
5. Qantas ‘golliwogs’ – social media rugby promo, which catalysed a racial brouhaha
6. Ricky Nixon – PR fallout from unseemly association with the St Kilda teen
7. Larissa Behrendt – bitchy comments against Bess Price published on Twitter
8. Kyle Sandilands – personal vendetta against a journo forced a humiliating apology
9. Australian Defence Force – Cadet Skype-cam sex scandal
10. Gasp Retail – bad customer service flowed from in-store to email; a PR 101 fail! Continue reading →

Fiji government hires US PR guns to polish its global image

Posted on December 22, 2011 by Gerry

PR expert Gerry McCusker was interviewed by Radio Australia this am – exploring the Fiji Govt’s use of online PR and social media. McCusker told Radio Australia it makes perfect sense: “If an organisation posts regularly online through blogs and tweets and online press releases, and by feeding this material with the kinds of search terms that people are using online PR can influence what is said about any organisation, any corporate, any brand, any government, whether it is a democratic government or slightly less democratic one,” he said.

2011 PR disaster awards update

Posted on December 22, 2011 by Gerry

Hi guys; we’re still collating and crunching the data (taken longer than last year), but hope to publish our results soon – thanks for your patience.

Nominate your favourite PR disaster of 2011

Posted on December 13, 2011 by Gerry

It’s been a bumper year for PR disasters, gaffes and mis-steps; we’ve reviewed the site and noted some of the years most memorable PR disasters (see below). But, we’d love to hear your views on what makes the biggest PR boo-boo of the year:
FEB:
Tony Abbott’s ‘struck dumb’ shaking head interview
MAR:
Ricky Nixon and the St Kilda teenager
APR:
Academic Larissa Behrendt’s offensive Twitter slur
MAY:
Australian Defence Force – Skype sex scandal
AUGUST:
Qantas Wallaby golliwog Twitter promo
News Ltd grilling of the Murdochs
OCTOBER:
Qantas and Alan Joyce grounding flights
Gasp retailer jeans email furore
NOVEMBER:
Kyle Sandilands attack on Alison Stephenson
Qantas luxury pyjamas Tweet

Live goldfish mailed in PR disaster stunt

Posted on December 9, 2011 by Gerry

An Adelaide PR company has declared its interest in winning the 2011 PR disasters award after sending goldfish thru the mail to promote South Australia. The company chief Karen Raffen, insightfully, commented: “In hindsight we would probably not do this again”. Add your own piscatorial descriptor here…fishy, flounder, out of plaice etc etc
Ta Ross Monaghan for tipoff.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/state-politics/pr-stunt-flounders-as-goldfish-turn-up-dead/story-e6frgczx-1226215569077

Qantas PR disaster; only short-term pain predicted

Posted on November 2, 2011 by Gerry

Speaking on ABC regional radio this morning, ‘PR disasters’ author Gerry McCusker made the following observations: Qantas and CEO Alan Joyce were addressing a business imperative, not a brand challenge. Via a skilful PR team, they had probably calculated that the recent PR turbulence wouldn’t outweigh the benefits of staff/operational efficiencies being pursued. McCusker mentioned the A to Z of agenda opportunists (Tony Abbott to Christopher Zinn of consumer group Choice) and a growing social media commentariat who were prolonging the PR pain for the airline, the Gillard government and the unions, too. Gerry concluded by questioning whether the entire concept of reputation was really worth what it once stood for. Indicating that the Qantas share price had gone up since Joyce redrew the battlelines, the PR analyst McCusker suggested that Qantas could win back consumers with marketing and PR initiatives, saying that goodwill now has a (sic) relatively cheap price.