A Look into Crisis Communication

 ​​Welcome back! I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends and family. 

This week, I will be piggybacking off last week’s conversation about creating an appropriate holiday-centered advertisement. As we know from last week, finding yourself in a PR crisis is much easier than you would think. In fact, it happens pretty often. Now, I will be focusing on what happens after a PR crisis. How do you stop it? Well, you can’t. Once a PR crisis begins, “it is like trying to herd kittens” (Talkwalker, 2023). In other words, it is nearly impossible. While a PR crisis may be inevitable, there are many ways to address and mitigate it. It is crucial that PR strategists and business executives understand how to lessen the damage that could be done by a PR crisis.

There are many situations that can lead to a PR crisis within an organization. When I think of a PR crisis, I immediately think of a situation in which an employee has done a careless act while proudly wearing their company uniform, or someone posting a picture of their raw meat at a fast food chain. Each of these situations leads to social media outbursts and organizations becoming a victim to cancel culture. While this is what I usually think of, there are many other reasons why an organization may face a PR crisis. For example, natural crises such as COVID-19 keeping people from working or consuming, a company changing leadership or staff, violence, or technical issues. When a crisis ensues, implementing a crisis communication plan is necessary.

There are many different ways organizations can respond to a crisis and execute a crisis communication plan. This week, we read about different ways organizations can work to save their brands. I decided to research some PR crises of well-known organizations and analyze the steps they took to save face (Figueroa, 2022). 

Cracker Barrel: 

In 2017, a man named Bradley Reid made a post to Cracker Barrel’s corporate about why his wife–a loyal Cracker Barrel employee of over a decade–was fired. Not to my surprise, social media users took this as an advantage to crowd the internet with a silly, yet damaging hashtag. The hashtag read “#JusticeforBradsWife.” What started as a silly and lighthearted effort to get Cracker Barrel’s attention gained the attention of thousands. People used this as an opportunity to get likes, produce trending posts, and connect with audiences emotionally. Many people spoke negatively about Cracker Barrel, diminishing the welcoming nature of the restaurant. Even Chick-Fil-A benefited from Cracker Barrel’s crisis, creating their own advertisement with the satirical message that they were “Now Hiring Brad’s Wife!” Getting called out by Chick-Fil-A!? That is my worst nightmare. 

In response to this crisis, Cracker Barrel took a nontraditional approach. Instead of publicly addressing the situation or making a public apology to Brad and his wife, Cracker Barrel chose to stay silent. Some may have seen Cracker Barrel’s silence as insensitive to Brad and his wife; it turned out to be a clever move. Many social media users tap into trends for the purpose of their online reputation and content. Oftentimes, they do not have a real connection with the issue at hand. That being said, many users will exhaust one situation and then move on to the next big thing. By staying silent, Cracker Barrel made it easier for people to move on to new and different content, making #JusticeforBradsWife old news. Personally, I did not even know about this crisis until reading about it today. While staying silent helped Cracker Barrel’s crisis to diminish, many organizations do not have this luxury. In a more serious event, staying silent could create worse problems and damage reputations. 

Pepsi:

Pepsi took a different approach than Cracker Barrel in its 2017 crisis. Pepsi launched a very insensitive and thoughtless advertisement which starred Kendall Jenner. In the ad, Kendall Jenner puts a stop to protests and brings peace, all due to sharing a Pepsi. The purpose of the ad was to promote ideas of the drink bringing people together and causing happiness. However, consumers did not take it lightly. Many believed that the ad poked fun at protestors, insinuating that their oppression and beliefs could easily be put aside with Pepsi. It was not a good look for the brand or for Kendall Jenner. Naturally, anger spread among consumers and other audiences. Unlike the light-hearted nature of Cracker Barrel’s situation, Pepsi was severely criticized. An immediate response was necessary.

Pepsi began its crisis communication plan by explaining the advertisement. In a social media post, the brand communicated the message of the video, which was to promote peace among different walks of life. The purpose of this explanation was to give the advertisement a second chance at life, hoping that viewers would think of the message with a different perspective. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, first impressions mean everything. Social media users continued to criticize Pepsi for the advertisement, even more enraged by their attempt at justifying the harmful video. Quickly after, Pepsi pulled the advertisement entirely and posted an apology. In the apology, Pepsi admitted that their advertisement put out the wrong idea. Terminating the advertisement and putting out a genuine apology was the best way to handle this situation. When Pepsi saw that its original crisis communication plan to explain the ad did not go well, they knew they had to act fast with a new plan. 

Johnson & Johnson:

Of these examples, Johnson & Johnson’s PR crisis is the most life-threatening, calling for the most serious crisis communication plan. Johnson & Johnson’s reaction lives on to be a cookie cutter example of what a crisis communication plan should look like. In 1982, multiple people died from taking Tylenol that was laced with cyanide. While Johnson & Johnson could have disassociated itself from the tragedy and blamed it on whoever laced the Tylenol, the company took action immediately.

It was proven that the product being laced was not a fault of Johnson & Johnson. However, the company treated the situation as if they were at fault. Johnson & Johnson stopped all product advertisements, sales, and issued warning messages to thousands of facilities and consumers. The brand was transparent, letting people know of the issue and putting public safety first. The company’s CEO spoke out about the situation, allowing consumers to put a face to the message and maintain trust with the reputable company. As a part of Johnson & Johnson’s crisis management, they went on to develop packaging that would be less susceptible to tampering and lacing. Johnson & Johnson did everything they could to recall any risky products and produce new and trusted ones. This response helped uphold the company’s good reputation and keep a relationship with loyal customers and consumers. 

As we have read about and dived into today, crisis communication plans can look different. Depending on the nature of the situation, different strategies are necessary for repairing a brand’s reputation. It is important for organizations to know the steps in launching a crisis communication plan, and when to do so. It is very interesting to learn about large companies and their experiences with handling a PR crisis.

There are only a few blog posts left… I am sad for it to end! Come back next week for another post.

Maiya Sokol

References

Amaresan, S. (2022, September 14). 10 crisis communication plan examples (and how to write your own). HubSpot Blog. https://blog.hubspot.com/service/crisis-communication-plan

Figueroa, A. (2022, September 27). Crisis management examples: Learn from these 7 brands. Crisis Management Examples: Learn From These 7 Brands. https://brandfolder.com/resources/crisis management/