"10 Disastrous PR Moves by Companies"-TheStreet

Recently in my media relations class, we discussed companies/clients who have inappropriately handled a situation among the media. One of the examples we were provided with in class was a Tyra Banks interview that took place several months ago. The interview went wrong when Tyra Banks was asked a difficult/controversial question and did not know how to reply-- instead, her publicist responded therefore making poor Tyra look twice as bad. In a similar light, TheStreet published an article detailing the top disastrous PR moves that companies made and why they are noted. The article is focused on situations where a company's or client's public response amid controversy was either too little, too late, or dishonest. One of my personal favorite controversies is the crisis centered on Abercrombie & Fitch in 2002. Back in the day, Abercrombie received a large amount of negative feedback due to T-shirts seen as "reinforcing negative Asian-American stereotypes". An example of this could be found on a shirt complete with Chinese laundry workers and rice-paddy hats, with the slogan "Wong Brothers Laundry Service: Two Wongs Can Make it White". A&F was slammed with charges of racism and protests against the brand. The company's explanation? "We personally thought Asians would love this T-shirt". Another great example of a spokesperson gone bad can be found in the BP case, which TheStreet classifies as being in the top 10 worst PR moves. Not only did CEO Tony Hayward decide and then declare that he wanted his life back, but the company took the worst route possible by trying to pass the blame off to other contractors and underplayed all the damage they have caused. One of the most crucial aspects of crisis management is understanding the media and knowing how to fix your mistake-instead of further offending them!