Public relations is often the soul of any enterprise or business. Rather like running water, when public relations go smoothly, it’s barely noticed; but when it’s absent or there’s some disaster, it’s noticed by everyone – and often much discussed for days, months, or even years after depending on the level of catastrophe. With social media now playing a prominent role in company marketing and public relations, a PR foible is even more likely to become widely publicized, earning the company a long-lasting or even permanent mark on their record.
Most major companies work with PR firms to ensure their PR is up to snuff, and that any problems are handled efficiently and smoothed out promptly to avoid damaging the company’s reputation. But sometimes even the best PR firm can’t help a company when they make a serious gaffe – or, worse, a series of them. Here are five memorable PR nightmares that every company should treat as cautionary tales.
Related resource: Top 10 Best Online Communications Degree Programs
United Airlines’ Passenger Removal
United Airlines came under heavy fire on news sites and social media recently when it had security personnel forcibly drag a passenger off an overbooked plane. The gentleman in question was a doctor, and told airline personnel that he could not give up his seat because he had patients to attend to in the hospital next morning. Rather than choosing another passenger, the airline authorized airport security to board the plane and remove the man, injuring him in the process. Things went from bad to worse for United when, a few weeks later, a giant pet rabbit died while in flight.
Abercrombie and Fitch’s Body Shaming
Although this goes a little way back, the CEO of Abercrombie and Fitch, Mike Jeffries, seriously damaged the reputation of his company by explicitly shaming overweight women and explaining why A+F not only didn’t carry plus sizes and only hired “good-looking” people to work in their stores. While the company opted to offer larger sizes after a hue public outcry, the fashion world has opted to largely shop more progressive and accepting brands.
Sony’s Racist Playstation Billboard
This PR disaster is more than ten years old, but it has haunted Sony for all that time, and recently experienced a renaissance when someone tweeted an image of the billboard, drawing thousands of reactions on Twitter. The billboard depicted a pale-skinned and blonde-haired woman aggressively gripping the chin of a black woman, with the phrase “Playstation Portable: White is coming” printed on the billboard. Sony had since apologized for the ad when angry Sony customers pointed out its resonance with white supremacy, but the fact that this advert was brought out into the light again so many years later is good reason for companies to be cautious with their advertising.
DiGiorno’s Ray Rice Gaffe
When Ray Rice was charged with domestic abuse of his fiancee, the case blew up in the media – prompting the Twitter hashtag #WhyIStayed to generation discussion about domestic violence and why many victims don’t simply leave their abuser. DiGiorno chimed in with the ill-timed and utterly tone-deaf tweet, “#WhyIStayed: he had pizza.” It goes without saying this did not earn them any accolades.
Pepsi’s Kendall Jenner Scandal
Pepsi recently produced an ad featuring a #BlackLivesMatter protest featuring model and reality television star Kendall Jenner. The ad featured a peaceful front line of the protest, cooperative police, and – the ultimate bad punchline – Jenner handing a police officer a can of Pepsi. Activists shouted the ad down as tone-deaf, insensitive and racially inappropriate. Pepsi promptly apologized, took the ad down, and promised no further development on this particular ad track. However, many BLM protestors are now boycotting the brand.
These are just a few examples of PR nightmares that companies have created with bad decision-making. Each and every one could have been avoided with better research and more forethought – and also serve as advisement to the business community not to emulate these examples.