Over the course of the past week, companies and people in high positions alike failed to confront incidents and admit that they had done wrong. This resulted in PR disasters consistently. It seemed as though all you had to do to get free press was to offend someone and not apologize then you would trend for 72 hours. This is what happened to Pepsi, United Airlines, Sean Spicer and The Daily Mail.
In the span of a week, Pepsi had to back away from a tone deaf protest-themed ad featuring Kendall Jenner. Many looked at the add as a slight at the Black Lives Matter movement, insinuating that a Pepsi could solve the problem. The amount of time, energy and coordination that must have gone into making such an ad dilutes the effect of an apology after airing it. Social media raged against the insensitivity and even SNL joined in portraying a director looking for feedback on the ad.
After a man was dragged out of his seat and off a plane by Chicago aviation police, United Airline’s CEO Oscar Muñoz quickly jumped in to defend employees and tactics used to remove the man after flight 3411 was overbooked. Investigating the situation led to a massive stock drop of 1.4 billion dollars as well as plenty of memes and social media outcry. United has since revised their booking policies for employees in an attempt to prevent such a situation from happening again.
The public will hold it against authority who don’t apologize more than those who admit their wrongdoing early and take steps to correct it. United has refunded the tickets of not only the doctor who was assaulted and removed from the flight but everyone who was aboard the flight. A lawyer representing the doctor has already taken steps to prevent video evidence from being destroyed as well.
Sean Spicer, who hasn’t been known for his way with words, compared Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad to Adolf Hitler and tried to make al-Assad seem worse by claiming that even Hitler didn’t use chemical weapons. But Spicer seemed to forgot the Holocaust and the gassing of millions of Jews in concentration camps. It took him multiple days of apologizing to fade out of the news cycle, but he’ll be back again soon.
The public eye will hold it against authority more for not apologizing than for those who admit their wrong doing early and take steps to correct it. United has refunded the tickets of not only the doctor who was assaulted and removed from the flight but everyone who was aboard the flight. A lawyer representing the doctor has already taken steps to prevent video evidence from being destroyed.
In news across the pond, The Daily Mail lost a court case against Melania Trump in which it printed false information about Melania’s work as a model. The settlement was 2.9 million dollars for Mrs. Trump.
It goes to show that offending people with a public audience can be expensive, and not all press is good press, especially for share holders.
