PR Disasters

When marketing messages aren’t exactly helping…

Gerry — Sun, 19 May 2013 23:02:14 +0000

Rolf Harris theatre poster

While Mr H is innocent until proven otherwise, surely his current show poster strapline is unfortunate at best and, should allegations prove substantial, in horrid bad taste at worst?

Hubris and “social media fail” on menu at Amy’s Baking Company

Gerry — Wed, 15 May 2013 00:56:06 +0000

Scratching my head on this one at HuffPost: It’s either THE best “controversy marketing” stunt designed to get the eyes of the world media on a TV show featuring an Arizonan restaurant, or it’s the biggest PR clusterfunk I’ve seen on social for some time. (Anything related to cocky chef Gordon Ramsay is usually tinged with an element of high-profile raising, innit?)
The precis? The restaurant owner calling social commentators ‘pussies’, challenging them to fistfights, threatening hollow legal action – all backed by ‘God’s’ might – and now claiming their Facebook was hacked (possible I guess) and you have a recipe for a tasty PR disaster.

IRS official’s ‘no good at math’ interview blunder.

Gerry — Sun, 12 May 2013 08:51:33 +0000

You couldn’t make it up. Honestly.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/05/10/im-not-good-at-math-the-irss-public-relations-disaster/

Tom Waterhouse and mum Gai to face their Waterloo?

Gerry — Mon, 06 May 2013 01:00:25 +0000

That it could shock anyone that there could be skullduggery at the stables where the “sport” of horse-racing is built on the proceeds of gambling, still quite baffles me. As the public spat between horse owner Singo, horse trainer Gai and horsetrader Tom turns into a public relations disaster for the family and racing industry, today’s stewards enquiry is unlikely to address the core issue driving the furore. Good article from Tim Elliot explains the background. Hat tip to Foxsports for the montage image.

#BoycottMyer PR disaster has Bernie on the backfoot

Gerry — Thu, 02 May 2013 03:55:21 +0000

Shooting-from-the-lip Myer CEO Bernie Brookes has caused a sorta social media stink by saying that Julia Gillard’s NDIS levy will impact retail spending (sic, at his stores). While mainstream media reports mostly on the social media ‘outrage’ (see Addictomatic coverage), Social Mention calculates that the coverage is three times more likely to be negative towards Myer and Brookes; others report a dip (surely temporary) in the Myer share price.

If your CEO is the actual PR disaster

Gerry — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 00:10:52 +0000

What does a business do when a PR blunderbuss like Charles Green is its media spokesperson?
As a keen football follower and PR analyst, I’m compelled to rubberneck the PR debacle that is The (newco/sevco) Rangers back in Scotland. The apparent leadership blunderings have caused me to research the role of the CEO in preventing/managing PR disasters. I found this paper from the Institute For PR:
Ken Makovsky, writing in Forbes Magazine notes…”if the CEO is getting mostly negative publicity, it is very hard to get positive coverage on the organization as a whole. “The opposite is also true,” notes Nicole Lee, a master’s student at San Diego State University, “If an organization is regularly bashed in the media, its CEO would likely struggle to maintain a positive reputation.”
In addition to the academic view, reputation practitioners would counsel that the CEO must always be the custodian of reputation, not the imperiller of it.