Download 1) BP Oil Crisis The BP Oil crisis is a classic example of reputation

1)
BP Oil Crisis
The BP Oil crisis is a classic example of reputation
management misfiring. The event itself, which was the biggest off shore oil spill in US history,
was a tragedy and environmental disaster only exacerbated by the way the crisis was handled.
BP’s lack of apparent empathy and compassion was personified by former BP CEO Tony
Haywood who famously said in an interview “I’d like my life back”, evoking a huge backlash of
public resentment and anger.
Of course this wasn’t the only PR mistake BP made during the crisis. Their website had scant
information on this situation with only minimal links to Facebook and Twitter. Also offering
potential plaintiffs $5000 not to issue lawsuits showed a serious lack of understanding.
2)
The horsemeat scandal
The horsemeat scandal in 2013 famously spawned a whole
host of jokes, info-graphics and memes across the internet, illustrating just how influential social
media channels can be when it comes to the public’s perception.
According to the Telegraph some of the stand out twitter quips included:
The story revealed beef products sold in major retailers (including Tesco, Iceland, Aldi, Lidl, Ikea,
Asda and Co-op) contained horsemeat, rocking the European supply chain, with abattoirs,
suppliers, manufacturers and retailers all implicated.
3) Malala shot for mattress ad campaign
When advertising agency Ogilvy created a cartoon of Malala
Yousafzai for a mattress advertising campaign they quite figuratively shot themselves in the foot.
The poster campaign showed the young school girl being shot in the face by the Taliban, falling
onto the matress and then returning to health under the slogan “bounce back”.
Ogilvy’s press spokesman apologised to Yousafzai and her family.
“The recent Kurl-On ads from our India office are contrary to the beliefs and professional
standards of Ogilvy & Mather and our clients. We deeply regret this incident and want to
personally apologise to Malala Yousafzai and her family.” (The Guardian)
4) Nestlé vs Greenpeace – Give a Oranutang a Break
The case of Nestle is a well-cited example of how not to handle
a crisis.
In early 2010 Greenpeace launched a campaign highlighting Nestle’s palm oil sourcing practices,
rolling out a Take a Break viral ad campaign featuring an office worker gnawing on an
Orangutan’s finger instead of a Kit Kat Bar. The tag line was Kit Kat Killer.
Nestle’s Facebook page was overrun with people begging Nestle to stop using palm oil and killing
the orangutans. Rather than acknowledging the comments Nestle deleted many of them and
posted the following message.
“To repeat: we welcome your comments, but don’t post using an altered version of any of our
logos as your profile pic—they will be deleted,”
This led to a further barrage of criticism adding huge pressure on the brand. In May 2010, only
ten weeks later, Nestle announced it would stop sourcing unsustainable palm oil… a huge victory
for Greenpeace.
5) Domino’s YouTube scandal
A video featuring two Dominos employees doing disgusting
things to pizzas they were sending out had almost one million hits on YouTube, proving extremely
damaging for the brand.
The pranksters posted five video clips – including a particularly revolting clip involving a sandwich
– that quickly spread through social media channels resulting in a barrage of anti Dominos
comments.
Asking YouTube to remove the video proved tricky as the website requires approval from the
person who posted the video in the first place – although that person was finally identified and
contacted.
Following the incident Dominos shut the store to sanitize the operation and the two employees
were fired. However, they were critcised for not issuing an immediate statement. Dominos later
claimed this was because they were worried about more people watching the clip.
6)
Tobacco giant says smoking deaths have a “positive effect”
According to CNN Phillip Morris ran a survey to counter the
Czech government’s argument that the financial cost of smoking outweighed the benefits.
The results of their survey suggested that smokers’ deaths had “positive effects” on the Czech
economy and le toa net gain of around $147 million. This included a saving of “between 943
million and 1.2 billion korunas” in health-care, pension and public-housing costs due to the early
deaths of smokers.
The company faced a huge PR backlash and subsequently cancelled plans to launch similar
studies in other countries (according to CBS).
7)
Urban Outfitters sells racist board game
“You got yo whole neighborhood addicted to crack. Collect
$50.” Score!”
Ghettopoly was a parody of Monopoly launched in 2003. As you can gather by the above quote it
was a little edgy and received heavy criticism for being offensive and racist.
The game was pulled from the market by Urban Outfitters (the retailer) and in 2006 the
manufacturer was ordered to pay $400,000 in damages. According to eBay’s Offensive Materials
Policy the game cannot be sold on their website.
8)
Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl wardrobe malfunction
When Janet Jackson’s half time Super Bowl “wardrobe
malfunction” was broadcast to millions in 2004 it caused a huge PR headache for broadcaster
CBS, who received 540,000 complaints and were slapped with a $550,000 fine.
The incident, now sometimes referred to as “nipple-gate”, instigated new broadcasting laws in the
US forcing networks to enforce stricter regulations and broadcast delays for live events.
9) Netflix
In 2011 Netflix made a series of announcements
and apologies, followed by reversals that damaged its brand and its reputation.
In July the company emailed customers saying it was unbundling its video streaming and DVD
service to create two separate packages. When it was revealed that this would increase prices for
DVD customers (despite having been presented as an initiative to increase choice) CEO Reed
Hastings said:
“I messed up. I owe everyone an explanation. Many members felt we lacked respect and
humility…. That was certainly not our intent.”
He went on to announce a new DVD service called Qwikster… a month later this was cancelled.
According to the Huffington Post “It should certainly be a first ballot entrant into the Bad Decision
Hall of Fame”. It certainly was an incredible example of a crisis being caused by a brand’s own
making.
The company’s share price plunged and Hastings gave up 50 percent of his stock option awards
for the year.
10) The tax shaming scandal – Google, Amazon, Starbucks
In 2013 there was a spate of stories highlighting
a number of multinational firms with a UK presence apparently avoiding paying tax.
Amazon, for example, reported UK sales of £3.35 billion in 2011, but only paid £1.8 million in tax.
Meanwhile Google’s ad unit paid just £6 million to the Treasury in 2011 despite a UK turnover of
£395 million.
While what the companies were doing was legal, it had a hugely negative impact on the tide of
public opinion, who were simultaneously facing austerity cuts to help negotiate the countries way
out of recession.
Interestingly according to the BBC News Magazine “the tide of public opinion is visibly turning.
Even 10 years ago news of a company minimising its corporation tax would have been more
likely to be inside the business pages than on the front page”.
While most branding experts argue over the precise impact of the stories in terms of profit and
revenue there is no doubt that in the court of public opinion all these brands suffered. This can be
seen by the number of social media groups and hashtag campaigns that emerged as result of the
scandal.