crisis communications

As a rule, young superstar athletes don’t usually handle themselves very well when they screw up, but, boy, is Rory McIlroy the exception or what?

If you missed the 23-year-old’s recent news conference, go take a look at it. It should be must-see for anyone who wants to get crisis communications right.
 

An interesting take from Peppercomm’s Steve Cody on Beyonce’s handling of the recent flap over lip-synching the national anthem at the president’s inauguration a couple weeks ago.

In case you missed it, at her news conference the Friday before her Super Bowl halftime performance Beyonce began by singing the Star Spangled Banner – which, according to Cody, “put to rest any lingering image and reputation damage suffered” when the world learned she had only pretended to sing live at the inauguration.

The next time the unexpected happens and news reporters come calling, let The Three Bears help you make sure you haven’t picked the wrong person to speak on behalf of your organization.

After all, you can have a great crisis plan, execute it flawlessly and still blow it because you put the wrong person in front of the cameras. (Remember BP CEO Tony Hayward’s remarks after the Gulf oil spill?)

The ongoing Costa Concordia cruise ship tragedy once again raises the age-old crisis communications debate: when should the CEO be the spokesperson?

“Carnival CEO Lies Low After Crash” is the headline of yesterday morning’s story in the Wall Street Journal that asks, “Where is Micky Arison?”

Talk about a one-two Christmas punch!

First, FedEx gets slammed when a delivery guy tosses a package over a customer’s fence. The customer posts a video of his monitor clearing the uprights on YouTube. At last count 6.3 million people had watched it. Mentions on Twitter and other social media were running at one every 25 seconds.

In the court of public opinion, a Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice is as good as guilty.

A front page story in this morning’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel details how Justice Michael Gableman has cast votes in favor of a law firm that has provided him free legal counsel in an ethics case. Whether that’s right or wrong is up to you to decide – that’s not what I’m writing about.

I’m writing about a short sentence that appears about halfway through the story: “Gableman has not responded to requests for an interview.”

For the California-based non-profit Love Ride Foundation, last month’s headline in the LA Times could hardly have been more devastating: “Motorcycle accidents cast gray clouds over Love Ride event.”

It often seems that businesses and organizations are in denial when it comes to crisis communications.  They tend to fear taking the scary step of getting company leaders and stakeholders in a room to brainstorm for worst-case scenarios.  But if they do, they may just find out they’re much better prepared to handle a crisis when it comes along.

Now they have a place to start with their risk management team – but they still need help with the communications directions.

In the popular comic strip For Better or For Worse, one character makes a suggestion to another who is hoping to mend a damaged friendship: “An apology is the superglue of life! It can repair just about anything!!”

That advice is sound, but a little incomplete. The last sentence could have read, “It can repair just about anything – as long as you get it right!”

Who could have imagined that BP would be dethroned so soon as the clearest example of how to screw up crisis communications?

But former Rep. Anthony Weiner most certainly has accomplished that – and in a most spectacular fashion. The news media, blogosphere, Twitter and every other outlet for commentary have been absolutely saturated with analysis of his communications mistakes and how he could have salvaged his reputation.