PR Disasters of 2013

Lauren Hannaford

As fast as PR disasters come and go and with the perpetuation of these “disasters” by social media, there’s no surprise we continue to see an increase from year to year. This year, we saw everything from “foot-in-mouth” fiascos to social media meltdowns. Here’s a recap of the worst! 

1. Paula Deen. Enough said.
2. The Abercrombie & Fitch “Cool kids” viral video, based on a horrific interview by the CEO in 2006. 
3. Toronto Mayor Rob Ford smokes crack. 
4. Lululemon’s pants controversy, and ensuing comments by the company’s CEO.
5. Carnival’s PR nightmare. 

Other highly-debated examples include comments in a GQ article by Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson, the failure of Healthcare.gov and Lance Armstrong finally coming clean during an interview with Oprah Winfree.

Social media saw its fair share of blunders. These were truly heinous: 

1. Kenneth Cole puts his foot in his mouth again with offensive tweet. #Cairo 
2. The most epic meltdown on social media, ever. #amysbakingcompany 
3. Justine Sacco’s “the tweet heard round the world.” 
4. This terrible idea by J.P. Morgan 
5. Home Depot’s racist Twitter photo and tweet 

You Can See My But(t) They are Handling It

Thomas Whitehead

So, here is a confession I have to make – in the last year or so, I have become more active with yoga as part of my exercise regime. It has been awesome. I am definitely stronger, more balanced and flexible. Heck, I even did a handstand not too long ago. No photographical evidence available, but just take my word for it.

As part of my yoga immersion, there has been a new word introduced into my vocabulary over the past year – Lululemon, the athletic apparel company that has become really popular with yogis and other exercise enthusiasts.
By now, many of you are probably familiar with Lululemon’s controversial recall last month after it was announced that almost 20 percent of their athletic pants were made of material that was “too” see-through.

My first thought was wondering if this was some type of publicity stunt. I would assume that a company of this size would have some of the best product testing procedures in place before they distributed to retail to be sold. The story dominated morning shows and late-night television, introducing the brand to new audiences. Unfortunately, it turned out to be an actual oversight.

Five paragraphs into this entry, and here is what I want to celebrate – Lululemon’s response was a PERFECT example of how a company should respond during a crisis situation.

They immediately took responsibility for the mishap and offered a plan to reconcile the situation through a recall. This was followed up with a public media tour where they used levity to defuse the situation. While they did apologize, they did so with some “cheeky” humor because they knew that if they didn’t make jokes, others would. And, they wanted to get to the “bottom” of this. Okay, I will stop now…

Throughout this, they were committed to keeping their key audiences informed throughout – media, brand ambassadors, investors and other shareholders in Lululemon. They offered full refunds to anyone who wanted them and even discussed what their new material and design will be in the future.

Yes, they had a temporary black-eye from this situation, but I predict they will fully recover from this crisis situation and eventually we will totally forget they were once the “butt” of our jokes. #ugh