BP, Enron – and Now Volkswagen
From our colleagues at CyberAlert: Should VW follow the standard PR/Legal Crisis Management Playbook? Wouldn’t you like to be a fly on the wall listening to discussions in the Volkswagen corporate headquarters about how to contain the fallout from the emissions testing scandal? You might imagine that VW executives are trying to develop strategies and […]
Social Media in a Crisis
We’re living in an age when an organization’s reputation can be made or broken very quickly online – even more so during a crisis. So it’s imperative that social media becomes a central focus for your communications team during such an event. Here are 10 tips to make sure social media works for, rather than against […]
‘I’m Sorry’: How You Say It Says a Lot About Your Organization
[By Thom Fladung, Hennes Communications] In 2010, The New York Times Magazine wrote about the explosion of public apologies – or, as the Times put it, the mea culpas, sometimes with very little mea. Back then, it was Gen. Stanley McChrystal, saying I’m sorry for talking ill of President Barack Obama in Rolling Stone and […]
CEO Says “5,000% Price Hike On Daraprim Drug Not Excessive”
[by Howard Fencl, Hennes Communications] Rarely do we see such a bracing, breathtaking display of contradictory messages and corporate spin as in the case of Turing Pharmaceutical’s 5,000 percent price hike of the toxoplasmosis drug, Daraprim. Toxoplasmosis is a parasitic disease that can kill people with compromised immune systems. Daraprim, once $13.50 per pill, was […]
Jeni’s Ice Cream Issues an Apology
[By Bruce Hennes, Hennes Communications] Earlier this year, Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream suffered through two bouts of listeria in their manufacturing plants, causing them to close their chain of retail stores until the problem was eliminated and they felt they could return product to the shelves with confidence. A few weeks ago, Jeni Britton Bauer […]
How to Proceed When Your Spokesperson is a Dud
[By Bruce Hennes, Hennes Communications] For decades, clients have come to Hennes Communications to learn how to communicate better with reporters, stakeholders and the public. The gold standard is when a speaker says the right thing and delivers it to their intended audience in an interesting, conversational manner. To do that, we often spend as much […]
Crisis Communications – How Not To Do It
Matt Hodges-Long looks at the recent WHSmith ‘data breach’ story and explains how the retailer could have better handled its crisis communications. At approximately 00:17 on September 2nd the well-known British retailer WHSmith started to erroneously email its customers email addresses and telephone numbers to other customers in its database. We don’t know when WHSmith were […]
Don’t Gloat About the Ashley Madison Leak. It’s About Way More Than Infidelity.
Before you celebrate your comeuppance over less ethical friends and colleagues, consider this: The Ashley Madison leak is about a lot more than the public shaming of philanderers. Above all, it’s about Internet privacy. Within minutes of the alleged leak, people began combing the data for information and posting their findings. “I may be overestimating how far things will […]
McDonald’s Rebuffs Burger King’s International Day of Peace “McWhopper” Proposal
So Burger King decides to join forces with McDonald’s to support a good cause. To that end, Burger King created a joint promotion and spent megabucks on full-page advertisements in newspapers across the U.S. From the “It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time” Department, it couldn’t have been more clever. Perhaps too clever? […]
Is Social Media Still the Great Equalizer?
[By Scott Juba, President, Radar Public Relations & Consulting, of counsel to Hennes Communications] I used to tell people that social media is the “great equalizer” – a place where everyone is equal and your ability to successfully communicate is not dependent on how large or small your brand may be. While I still believe there […]