PR Crisis? Response is Everything
When it comes to historic public relations crises’ there
are a few that come to mind. The Bhopal chemical explosion in December of 1984,
where thousands died after a leak of deadly gas reached people living near a
Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India. Another historical one was in 1982 when a
killer was lacing Tylenol capsules with cyanide killing seven people. Finally,
the Three Mile Island disaster in 1979 was a near-catastrophic event. The
public relations crisis’ that came about because of these events were handled
with varying success. How Johnson & Johnson, the parent
company of Tylenol handled the pill tampering tragedy is said to be one of the
great public relations crisis success stories in history. It was all about
transparency and the willingness to take a large short-term financial loss to have a long-term recovery and future success.
The one that was handled terribly was the Three Mile Island
disaster. Nuclear meltdowns are the biggest fear of citizens that reside near
these facilities and the public at large. The lesson of this was that no
information is worse than unsettling information because people underreact and
overreact. Each reaction creating a dangerous situation.
A recent one (or two) is the situation regarding two Boeing
737 Max air crashes this year. After the first crash, a Lion Air 737 Max,
Boeing officials stated that the aircraft was safe and that the solution was
more training for the pilots. Then a second crash occurred killing all on board
and Boeing doubled down on the training explanation. According to Sandy Sucher
of the Harvard Business Review, in her article, How Boeing Should Have
Responded to the 737 Max Safety Crisis, Boeing should have said, “This is a technical problem that we do not fully understand.
In light of that uncertainty, we recommend grounding the 737 Max 8s and 9s
until we can be sure we know what is causing these crashes and can satisfy
ourselves and all of the global regulators that the plane is safe to fly again.”
Sucher contends that it is all in the framing of the message.
In these times, I am truly amazed more at the bad handling of
organizational crisis than I am impressed with good handling of it. It seems
that the examples we have had in our rearview mirrors have provided enough
quality examples of how to handle these situations. Although more
elements are in play in our current media world.
One of the reasons that organizations continue to struggle with poor
handling of Crisis PR is social media. When Johnson & Johnson was going
through its Tylenol crisis companies had more control of information that
relayed to the public. J & J officials were able to go on TV programs such
as Ted Koppel’s Nightline where viewers were given daily updates on the
progress of the ongoing criminal case and what they were doing to protect
consumers. This was during a time of low media fragmentation so millions could be
reached during one broadcast. Now with multiple TV channels and video outlets
with varying agendas, it is difficult to get the same message out to many
people.
The biggest reason, however, for the lack of control of information is
social media. Never in time has there been so many outlets that information can
be spread with no filters to separate accurate from inaccurate.
One that has definitely changed in recent years is that the PR crisis is
created because of the “hot button” political or social issues combined with social
media. In the case of Gillette and their move from “The Best a Man Can Be”
traditional tagline to their 2018 campaign tagline, “The Best Men Can Be,” the
company that has been known for years to brand their products for men decided
without warning to take on men’s past behavior and how to be a man in current
times. While well-meaning, the campaign came off as preachy and was a shock to
traditional male Gillette product consumers. Also, with the division
that some have interpreted as identity politics, and the fact that these ads
that were typically aired during Sunday afternoon NFL games, many were not
happy with Gillette intrusion on their routine by making men examine their
place in society.
Robert, your recap of historic public relations crises got me thinking. I just recently started watching The Crown on Netflix. Season 1, episode 4 is about the Great Smog of 1952 in London, and while the episode was full of dramatized falsehoods and exaggerations, as expected, it made me imagine a world where a Prime Minister, or other world leader, could get away with completely ignoring a crisis. Could you imagine if these crises of the past existed during a time of social media, even the more accurate version of the Great Smog? I’d be curious to see how all of these crises would’ve been handled in the modern age. I’m sure some would have prevailed unscathed but some, undoubtedly, would have floundered, as well.
ReplyDeleteNonetheless, I agree, social media has created an unprecedented struggle for organizations and PR. In your opinion, how do you think organizations can get a grip on the lack of control, as you stated in your blog? Surely there are some social listening practices and crisis communication preparation people can engage it to help navigate the dark waters. How can we as strategic communicators handle the broad scope that has now become our job?