“Love means never having to say you’re sorry” worked for Ali and Ryan in the movie Love Story, but you can bet in business or a public relations crisis, saying sorry is the best course of action to stop the bleeding, minimize the damage and regain some traction. If, by chance, you’ve been oblivious to the public relations firestorm of very public gaffes, posts and backlash, a few prominent celebrities, brands and CEO’s have found themselves squarely in the court of public disbelief and on a slippery slide worthy of a storyline on the hit television show Scandal. And just as we thought of this analogy, we learned Paula Deen, has retained Judy Smith, the DC fixer, crisis manager and inspiration for Scandal’s title character.
Serena Williams, who has since apologized for her Ohio rape victim statement; Paula Deen, who declared “I is what I is and I am not changing” on network television; Lolo Jones, who has since deleted her comments regarding a witness in the George Zimmerman trial; Alec Baldwin, who delivered yet another classic rant laced with a homophobic slur and has since closed his Twitter account; Chick-fil-a CEO Dan Cathy, who despite the backlash of a year ago, issued another anti-gay statement on Twitter; and all those who hold dear their corporate image, reputation and credibility, take note. Think before you speak or tweet and if that fails, in our best “Mr. T.” impression, we pity the fool who doesn’t apologize first, fast and fully. To think the consumer will forget or forgive is to take the long haul of brand building for granted. An offensive or contentious past, action, statement, picture or post has destructive consequences in this age of real-time engagement.
So, settle in for the week ahead, power up your marketing engine and maximize your momentum with a video we discovered on the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) YouTube Channel. It lays the groundwork for a strategy to help you avert a public relations nightmare.
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