Thanksgiving is coming early this year for anyone working in the PR industry. In a news cycle seemingly dominated by a new crisis everyday, most of us have found ourselves counting our blessings and feeling an overwhelming sense of gratitude not to be in charge of cleaning up the influx of messes companies left and right seem hell-bent on creating for themselves. Unless you have been living under a rock or vacationing on an isolated island with no internet access (in which case, consider me jealous), you’re well aware that Pepsi and United Airlines have been hit hard with a slew of bad press stemming from a slew of bad choices. In fact, you could probably put together an extensive case study on exactly how not to respond to a PR crisis based on the several days following United dragging a bloodied customer of a plane.
However, they’re not the only companies who have made some bad calls in the past few months. Whenever I read a story about any company’s recent mishaps and hiccups, I immediately send my condolences to their PR team and thank my lucky stars that I’m not one of them. While these companies may not have been hit as hard as Pepsi and United, I’m willing to bet that the past few months for their PR teams have been less than fun to say the least. Without further ado, here’s a sampling of a few companies who no doubt have had their PR teams working overtime in 2017.
Uber.
From sexual harassment allegations to an embarrassing situation involving the CEO acting like a buffoon in the backseat of his own Uber ride, the former king of Silicon Valley has been hit hard with bad press in the past few months. The ongoing slew of negative PR has led to #BoycottUber trending on Twitter, their CEO putting out a statement admitting he is in need of “leadership help,” and most recently, the departure of the company’s head of communications. Furthermore, much like United Airlines, Uber has completely botched its post-PR crisis apology tour. As this article from The Atlantic notes, the past few months have lead many to wonder if what was once one of Silicon Valley’s biggest success stories is actually “a cautionary tale about hubris, sexism, and, ultimately, failure.” With Uber’s fate basically in the hands of the fickle millennial generation, who generally care more about corporate responsibility than generations before them, only time will tell if Uber can bounce back or if Lyft will take its place as the go-to transportation app.
Fox News.
What do you do when a man who is arguably the face of your network is accused of sexually harassing several women and paying them off to keep quiet? It’s difficult to say, but one thing you shouldn’t do is sugarcoat the situation, which is what Fox News did in response to Bill O’Reilly, a decision that ultimately escalated the situation from controversy to a full-blown crisis. And it could have been so much worse considering these women were well within their rights to contact a sexual harassment attorney and sought financial compensation. Within 24 hours, countless major advertisers of The O’Reilly Factor backed out of the show, and since the allegations came out ratings have been in a steady decline. On the heels of Megyn Kelly departing the network after citing sexual harassment, which ultimately forced former news chief Roger Ailes to also leave Fox, the PR team of this leading news network is undoubtedly working around the clock on a strategy to turn the tides. Stay tuned to see if the network’s reputation can be redeemed.
Cheerios.
Even America’s most beloved cereal brand isn’t immune from the wrath of a bad marketing call. A few weeks ago, Honey Nut Cheerios launched a new campaign that burst into the spotlight, but likely not in the way their PR team was hoping for. On the surface, the idea behind the campaign was the raise awareness of the honeybee’s essential role in our global economy and food supply, an important and timely issue given the continual decline of our world’s honeybee population. As Entrepreneur stated, General Mills decided to strip the Honey Nut Cheerio box of its famous mascot, BuzzBee. But they didn’t stop there; in addition to liberating BuzzBee from his duties, General Mills partnered with Canadian company Veseys Seeds Ltd. to distribute nearly 1.5 billion wildflower seeds to people across the country. Plant more flowers, and you increase the natural pollination habitat for the struggling species — or so the theory goes. Unfortunately, not long after they announced the campaign, General Mills came under fire from ecologists who claimed the seeds (some of which are banned in certain states and regions because they are considered invasive) could pose a significant threat if they were introduced outside their native range. The company faced immediate backlash, largely through social media, reflecting yet again how technology has made it that much more difficult for PR crisis’ to be contained. However, its PR team deserves a major kudos for handling this issue far better than any other of the aforementioned brands (which is likely why you may not have even been aware this happened). General Mills went with a simple, but effective, strategy and issued a clear reactive statement that stifled much of the public outcry. For the most part, crisis was averted, and a clear lesson was imparted to other brands facing backlash: going with a simple, clear-cut approach is often the best way to avoid needlessly escalating a PR crisis.
