In this article from fortune.com is goes over the most scandalous business events
of 2013. Each one of these were huge at the time they came out and
were total PR nightmares.
Some of the biggest ones were the NSA
leaks, healthcare.gov launch, and Lance Armstrong’s doping
scandal. From a PR standpoint these were all nightmares at the
time. Looking at them now they certainly aren’t in the news near as much and
they have seemed to calm down.
For example the healthcare.gov launch was nothing short of a total failure of
launch. Glitches, crashes, incredibly low enrollment numbers were
just a few problems.
There was such a big deal made about
the launch of the site that it put a lot of pressure on those in
charge. The first month the site was offline more than it was
online. Needless to say the president and the government had to
tread lightly during those curtail months.
Another good one was the Lance Armstrong doping
scandal. After years and years of denial Lance Armstrong finally
came clean to none other than Oprah.
He lost most of his sponsors and more
importantly all of his titles.
PR teams were put to work over that
scandal and it already seems like a distant memory almost a year
later. All of the scandalous events could have certainly been
handled worse and made the problem much bigger, but for the most part these all
were handled as best as they could.
Michael, thanks for sharing the article. The PR nightmare that stood out to me was the Lance Armstrong scandal because I was so passionate about the topic when it was released. Armstrong was a huge admirer of mine and to be honest still is, just not as much. But the efforts to try clear Armstrongs name was somewhat effective in a PR perspective. Armstrong regularly posts on his Facebook page continually supporting cancer patients and helping them through their daily struggles. He receives support from the public but there are people still calling him a cheat and a liar via his Facebook posts. The way he has dealt with this scandal has helped his image somewhat survive.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that Lance Armstrong was mentioned as one of the most scandalous business events because I often times overlook athletes and other public figures as pr nightmares. Although the incident of doping was all over the news and was a big issue with his public image. Lance has been in public light in a negative way since 2012. Clementpeterson.com made an interesting observation. Lance had been denying his use of steroids for a long time and then he came out on national television. Instead of his image being renewed for telling the truth, it was even further damaged. "This fact of human psychology presents a sticky problem for brands in a PR crisis, as well as the PR professionals who advise them. Is dishonesty actually the best policy from a PR perspective? I would argue no: it’s best to be honest right away. Armstrong’s problem was that he had already lied (and had lied a lot) when he finally came clean and confessed. That’s much different from being honest from the beginning" (Clementpeterson.com)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.clementpeterson.com/2013/01/lance-armstrongs-pr-disaster-is-honesty-always-the-best-policy/
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