I love "The Titanic." I know it's cheesy and girly, but I can't help it. I was in my teenage years when this movie came out, saw it five times in the movie theater, played the CD until my sister cried, and will always have a crush on Leonardo DiCaprio. Nowadays, I sometimes still crawl to the front of our boat to whisper "I'm the King of the Woooorld." Instead of dreaming about beautiful dresses and made-up love stories, it is fascinating to read actual facts about this historical ship. I was very intrigued to hear Amanda's PR analysis on the Titanic.I had never thought about the sinking of this luxury liner from a PR perspective. So I did some research when I came home, and I found several interesting articles about the RMS Titanic in a PR perspective. There's even an official PR Case study here (as long as you're willing to pay $30 - which I'm not).
Besides from all the publication that went into promoting the Titanic, apparently, the sinking of this ship was one of the first cases of a large company facing crisis communications. Apparently, the tragedy took place because someone made a steering mistake. Survivors were told to lie about what happened because admitting human error coud potentially have brought lawsuits. I find this fascinating because nowadays, we still face the same issues in crisis communications: do we deny the problems/allegations, or do we come clean?It's very refreshing to hear stories about companies that are honest about mistakes and try to make it right.
When Odwalla Inc. was linked to an E-coli outbreak in beverages, they hired Edelman for crisis communications. Instead of denying or downplaying the allegations, Odwalla came clean. It expressed sympathy for all those affected, had a constant presence in the media, and even paid for medical bills. They took full responsibility for everything, and built back credibility and trust with consumers. I thought it was great to hear about a company that seems to truly care about its consumers. Ultimately, this apprach helped save the company -- and it might still have been "all about the money."
But what can I say, I like to believe in the goodness of humanity. Can't a girl dream? "Where to, Miss? To the stars!"
Besides from all the publication that went into promoting the Titanic, apparently, the sinking of this ship was one of the first cases of a large company facing crisis communications. Apparently, the tragedy took place because someone made a steering mistake. Survivors were told to lie about what happened because admitting human error coud potentially have brought lawsuits. I find this fascinating because nowadays, we still face the same issues in crisis communications: do we deny the problems/allegations, or do we come clean?It's very refreshing to hear stories about companies that are honest about mistakes and try to make it right.
When Odwalla Inc. was linked to an E-coli outbreak in beverages, they hired Edelman for crisis communications. Instead of denying or downplaying the allegations, Odwalla came clean. It expressed sympathy for all those affected, had a constant presence in the media, and even paid for medical bills. They took full responsibility for everything, and built back credibility and trust with consumers. I thought it was great to hear about a company that seems to truly care about its consumers. Ultimately, this apprach helped save the company -- and it might still have been "all about the money."
But what can I say, I like to believe in the goodness of humanity. Can't a girl dream? "Where to, Miss? To the stars!"
