5 Fantastic Examples of CEOs and Marketers Who Averted Potential PR Disasters

5 Fantastic Examples of CEOs and Marketers Who Averted Potential PR Disasters

Facebook's CEO and COO are now apologizing. This isn’t the first time Zuckerberg has been criticized for mishandling bad press, so I for one was left to wonder, what are some of the best ways CEOs have handled publicity crises? Adidas recovers from a bad subject line. Taco Bell makes a secret recipe public. Back in 2011, Taco Bell’s parent company (Yum! The lawsuit alleged that the brand's “seasoned beef” product was only 35 percent beef, implying that Taco Bell had been lying in its advertising. Brands CEO Greg Creed commented on the strategy, stating that it “sets the record straight about the high quality of our seasoned beef and the integrity of our advertising.” This was, and is, a fantastic example of averting disaster, owing to Taco Bell’s fast, completely transparent and multi-channel response to the controversy. JetBlue makes up for a massive inconvenience. Accordingly, Cadbury got into a disagreement with the FDA and faced significant backlash from the media before it took the next step. Think about your customers.

How Adidas Creates Moments of Relevance
How adidas Put Culture at the Core of Their Content Marketing Strategy
How to Differentiate Content in a Crowded Field [Example from Adidas]

Facebook’s CEO and COO are now apologizing. Maybe they should have done that sooner.

5 Fantastic Examples of CEOs and Marketers Who Averted Potential PR Disasters

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Facebook is being hammered by one of the biggest scandals in the company’s history. The scandal involves accusations of mismanagement of user data, following revelations that analytics firm Cambridge Analytica used data from 50 million profiles as part of President Trump’s 2016 campaign.

The true nature of this PR disaster is complicated, but when we look at it as entrepreneurs, CEOs and marketers, what’s really important here is how Facebook decided to respond.

While Mark Zuckerberg used multiple outlets to apologize to users and address important points of the controversy directly (and COO Sheryl Sandberg is now doing the same), Facebook’s founder still waited several days to do so and left out some key pieces of information.

This isn’t the first time Zuckerberg has been criticized for mishandling bad press, so I for one was left to wonder, what are some of the best ways CEOs have handled publicity crises? Here’s what I came up with:

1. Adidas recovers from a bad subject line.

In a 2017 marketing campaign, Adidas sent a promotional email to Boston Marathon participants with the subject line, “Congrats, you survived the Boston Marathon!” oblivious to the potential connotation linking that message to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings.

Related: The 12 Worst Social-Media Fails of 2016

Adidas spokeswoman Maria Culp immediately recognized the error after a few customers pointed it out, publicly stating, “We are incredibly sorry. There was no thought given to the insensitive email subject line we sent Tuesday. We deeply apologize for our mistake.” Her response was heartfelt, apologetic, straightforward and, most importantly, immediate — which may have prevented an even bigger PR disaster.

2. Taco Bell makes a secret recipe public.

Back in 2011, Taco Bell’s parent company (Yum! Brands) was facing a lawsuit over the content of its meat. The lawsuit alleged that the brand’s “seasoned beef” product was only 35 percent beef, implying that Taco Bell had been lying in its advertising.

In response, Taco Bell made several statements and released videos showing the true makeup of its seasoned beef product: 88 percent beef…

COMMENTS

WORDPRESS: 0
DISQUS: 0