Whole Foods Market’s CEO John Mackey is well known for landing his company in the hot seat. The outspoken Mackey first caught the public’s attention after being outed for using a pseudonym to both promote Whole Foods and blast their competition on the Yahoo! Finance bulletin boards, an incident which …
mal·ware (māl’wâr’)n. Malicious computer software that interferes with normal computer functions or sends personal data about the user to unauthorized parties over the Internet. Although the news media usually focuses on more widespread attacks like the recent Conficker worm, there is a new generation of malware aimed solely at gathering …
As crisis management pros are well aware, the anonymity of the Internet has historically provided cover for anyone with an opinion to post libelous comments with little fear of retribution. This appears to be changing, however, due in part to a landmark case brought against an anonymous blogger by fashion …
A half-hearted attempt by Continental Airlines to compensate passengers held for nearly six hours on a Minnesota airport tarmac has resulted in a serious wave of negative publicity. With reports surfacing about poor conditions on the plane, and the fact that multiple passengers asked to be let off and were …
We’ve all seen press releases and many of us have written them. It’s WAY too easy to get trite and undermine your own credibility in the process, as Robin Water discussed recently in “10 Words I Would Like to See Banned from Press Releases” at her TechCrunch blog. Here, for …
Disgraced quarterback Michael Vick, recently released from an 18-month stint in prison, granted one of his first interviews to CBS’ 60 Minutes. The interviewer pulled no punches and, unlike nearly every disgraced sports figure in recent memory, Vick made no attempts to deflect them. A recent Yahoo! Sports article has …
Today I’d like to discuss a gem of a post from a Talking Points Memo blog that was brought to my attention by faithful Crisis Manager subscriber Patricia Luebke. The post slams Whole Foods’ CEO John Mackey, who’s been caught in the crossfire of yet another scandal – this time …
An interesting, and silly, lawsuit has been filed against Twitter by Texas-based emergency alert provider TechRadium. Their complaint? They say the widespread use of the service by governments and organizations as an emergency notification system violates their patents. The worst part? It appears that none of their patents have even …
Effective crisis management starts long before an incident ever occurs. The world is an unpredictable place, and the best way to mount a rapid, convincing response is to be prepared beforehand. In his piece, published in the most recent Crisis Manager newsletter, PR vet George Hayward gives some important steps …
Social media has exploded onto the scene, bringing promises of more interaction with, and among, customers. This platform, which appears to be a marketers dream, has also shown itself to be dangerous, most recently causing trouble for corporate giants Johnson & Johnson and Pepsi. In her guest article from the …
As I’ve stated in previous articles, product recalls have the potential for crises for which many companies remain unprepared. They are nearly guaranteed to produce an initial barrage of criticism that, if not properly handled, can snowball into something much worse. A recent interview from ReliablePlant.com has more on this …
Although it’s always entertaining to bash poor crisis management, especially when it results in loads of negative media coverage, there is quite a lot of quality work being done every day. One such example is RadioShack’s handling of the mounting negative buzz on Twitter and various blogs after they unveiled …
We’ve uploaded a new edition of the Crisis Manager newsletter to our website, and, as always, it’s stuffed with information you really can’t afford to miss! In this issue our first guest, University of South Carolina Professor Karen Mallia, offers up a powerful review of two recent advertising campaigns torn …
In an identity theft scam, a fraudster, often posing as a trusted government, financial or business institution or official, tries to trick a victim into revealing personal and financial information, such as credit card numbers and passwords, bank account numbers and passwords, Social Security numbers and more. Generally, identity thieves …
When it was revealed that Tennessee Senator Paul Stanley was having an affair with his 22-year-old intern, it started a chain of events that ended with his reputation and career being destroyed. The fact that he was known for vocally citing his belief in abstinence outside marriage, as well as …
