Posts Tagged ‘PR Disaster’

Heathrow Chaos: Turning Bad PR into Good

Under-fire BAA Chief Exective Colin Matthews has given up his bonus following the holiday travel chaos suffered by thousands of passengers at snow-hit Heathrow.

Mr Matthews was today again apologising to travellers, was again explaining what had caused the problems, and was again reinforcing what urgent action will now be taken to stop this from happening again. This is crisis PR textbook stuff.

Despite Heathrow Airport being totally, utterly and shambolically unprepared for the recent bad winter weather, the BAA boss has not hidden himself away and has bravely faced the assembled media throng – something many high-profile CEOs would not do, cowardly preferring to shuffle out their no.2 or the poor PR!

Whilst sacrificing his 2010 bonus will understandably not satisfy those angry and frustrated passengers who had to bed down for days in what the press deemed Heathrow refugee camps, it is a public admission of his failure, as BAA’s boss, and a personal gesture of goodwill.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | Posted in PR Comment December 22nd, 2010

PR Disaster for BP

PR Week today reports that beleaguered BP is spending millions of dollars to minimise the PR damage caused by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, which has been named the worst oil spill in US history.

With no end in sight to the ongoing saga, BP chief executive Tony Hayward has said: ‘I think this is clearly a major reputational issue for BP.’

As £12billion was wiped off the value of its shares earlier today, it seems that BP’s reputation – and its future - is at risk every bit as much as the Gulf ecosystem.

The results mean the company’s stock has fallen £42billion – more than a third of its value – since the fatal oilrig explosion six weeks ago.

Some analysts are predicting that BP may not survive.

Greenpeace, who are masters of effective PR, summed up the feelings of many around the world when they hung a large flag with their own design on BP’s West London HQ, rebranding the company “British Polluters.”

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | Posted in PR Comment June 1st, 2010

Tiger Woods Apology: A PR Farce

After keeping schtum for nearly 3 months, golfing superstar Tiger Woods finally stepped out of the shadows to speak publicly about his scandal-ridden private life.

Overall, he did say the right things; but his public apology was long overdue and the PR-scripted, 13-minute performance seemed robotic, disingenuous and overly long - with many viewers left wondering if he had done this only to salvage his career and hang on to big-money deals with those sponsors who haven’t yet walked away.

Family, friends and supporters filled the hand-picked press conference, which included just three pro-Woods journalists who were not allowed to ask any questions.

The carefully stage-managed – and in many people’s eyes, wholly unconvincing – affair ended with tarnished Woods tenderly embracing his mother before leaving the podium with his head bowed. Bafta anyone?

Interestingly, Wood’s wife Elin was absent from the PR circus.

Make up your own mind about the infamous Tiger Woods apology, which has drawn mixed reactions, by watching the full press conference here.

Tags: , , , , , , , | Posted in PR Comment February 19th, 2010

PR Disaster for Bankers

Apologies from former bankers for the crippling financial crisis have been slammed as ‘insincere’ and ‘over-rehearsed’ by the media.

The Sun left readers in no doubt about its feelings with the headline ‘Scumbag Millionaires,’ whilst The Daily Mirror succinctly summed up the situation, calling it ‘the most pathetic apologies in history.’

The Daily Mail meanwhile labelled the performance by the four ex-bankers called before the Treasury Select Committee as ‘rehearsed to death.’

The media is no fool and to emerge from this crisis as well as one could expect given the dire circumstances, the best PR advice would have been for the former bankers to be glaringly open and honest.

Tags: , , , , | Posted in PR Tips February 11th, 2009