From our friend and colleague, David Wolowitz… Recently, the responses of independent schools to reports of past abuse of students by faculty have received intense scrutiny by the news media, social media, survivors, victim’s lawyers and alumni. Why is this happening now? I believe we are in a period of cultural change in which there […]
On Monday morning, activist Wagatwe Wanjuki lit a Tufts University sweatshirt on fire, and broadcast it on Facebook Live. She did so in protest, calling on schools like Tufts to apologize for mishandling sexual assault cases. “If they care about ending rape on campus, if they care about justice, then they should be able to do […]
[By Scott Juba] Facebook is rolling out a test in Brazil and Canada of having an open camera window atop the News Feed in the Facebook app. When people in those countries open the Facebook app on their mobile device, they will see a prompt to use this new feature. Upon accepting it, their camera […]
The way an organization reacts in the first hours of a crisis will probably determine whether it succeeds or fails in regaining public trust. The way brand managers at Kellogg Co. recently esponded to the release of a video depicting a disgruntled employee should serve as a model for handling a PR crisis. When crisis […]
A colleague of ours, Don Etling, said it best: You can’t spin your way out of bad behavior. The Penn State situation exemplifies that. Joe Paterno & Co. knew that Jerry Sandusky was abusing children – and they looked the other way. They didn’t have a communications problem – they had a performance problem. Volkswagen is […]
From Ragan’s PR Daily: When tennis star Maria Sharapova hastily called a press conference, many reporters expected the athlete would be announcing her retirement. Instead, Sharapova dropped a startling admission: She had failed a recent drug test for the Australian Open. Sharapova’s drug test results came back positive for meldonium, a drug used to treat […]
From DCInno: Picture this: A user of your new on-demand service just posted a story to her blog about a terrible experience, and major media outlets are now reporting on the story. Someone discovered your app is inadvertently making users’ private information public, and now they’re outraged. Your company’s founder posted an offensive rant to […]
From The New York Times: Someday, Volkswagen’s emissions cheating scandal will be studied in crisis communications textbooks. And not in a good way. “There was something like a tsunami,” Hans-Gerd Bode, Volkswagen’s communications chief since September, said in an interview. “Thousands of calls and emails coming in at the same time.” “A crisis like this, […]
[By Thom Fladung, Hennes Communications] The first of two parts on how best to deal with online comments. Today: How to be prepared. Next: How to get involved. John Kroll has some advice about news story online comments for folks in charge of their organizations’ reputations: Know the water before you jump […]
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Flint, and, in particular, the governor’s office in Michigan, don’t have a communications problem. They have a performance problem. Sure, they need to talk to their stakeholders, quickly, clearly and with honesty and transparency. A skilled crisis communications firm can help them with that, especially when it […]