Today’s guest post is written by Elissa Freeman. 

Shhhh. Can you hear it? It’s the sound of yet another corporate giant falling to its knees after a tidal wave of social media criticism.

Corporate capitulation is happening with frightening regularity these days. We no longer look at the Fortune 500 as impenetrable monoliths; instead, they now appear as dominoes ready to topple at the first flick of public outcry via the Twitterverse.

When do ‘we the people’ stop having a point? And when do we as communicators stop listening to it?

Are we counseling our clients/organizations to respond because it’s the right thing to do or are we being bullied into it via the blogosphere? Continue Reading »

I would be remiss if I didn’t blog about the PR nightmare Walmart has caused itself by allegedly covering up the bribes they paid Mexican officials in exchange for getting building permits faster and other favors to help it aggressively expand in the region.

Late last week the New York Times revealed a Walmart attorney received an alarming email from a former executive at the company’s Mexico subsidiary, which described how the company had orchestrated a campaign of bribery in order to win market share. The problem? This happened in 2005.

That same year, the attorney dispatched a committee to Mexico City and found, yes indeed, there was suspicion both Mexican and U.S. laws had been broken. The lead investigator at the time recommended Walmart continue the investigation to confirm suspicions.

Instead, Walmart shut it down.

The campaign of bribery isn’t the PR crisis…it’s in how it was handled. Rather, in how it was not handled. Continue Reading »

Oh Groupon. What are we going to do with you?

Remember when Google offered them $6B and they walked away?

Then they went public, in the hopes they would make more than $6B (they were valued at $17B, but raised only $700 million), and now Crain’s Chicago Business is calling for adult supervision, based on the accounting irregularities they provided to Wall Street.

On March 30, they disclosed a “material weakness in internal controls” and restated 2011 Q4 earnings, turning a $15 million operating profit into a $65 million operating loss. Yes. A sixty-five million dollar loss.

But it gets worse (can it get worse than losing that much money?). Continue Reading »

I don’t know where to begin with this one. I’m astounded.

Did you know Augusta National Golf Club does not allow women to join as members? And did you know they only began allowing African American members in 1990?

Did something happen last night and I woke up in 1912?

Does this really happen in 2012?

Yet, here we are. Twenty-two years later and we’re still having this conversation.  Continue Reading »

I’ve been watching a different kind of PR crisis unfold with great interest – that of Skittles.

Skittles, you say? Taste the fruity rainbow, Skittles?

Yes, Skittles.

Because of the symbolism of the candy (Trayvon Martin was carrying only Skittles and a drink when he was shot), college student governments are buying it in bulk and reselling it to raise money for his family.

The candy has been piled into makeshift memorials, crammed into the pockets of thousands of people who have shown up at rallies in his name, and sent to the Sanford Police Department to protest the lack of an arrest in the case. Continue Reading »

It was just a couple of weeks ago that Greg Smith wrote a scathing OpEd for the New York Times about his former employer, Goldman Sachs, on his way out the door.

But it feels like an eternity.

Smith wrote, during his 12 year tenure, the culture at Goldman shifted from valuing teamwork and “always doing right by clients” to one where people “callously … talk about ripping customers off.”

He went on to say, “Over the last 12 months I have seen five different managing directors refer to their own clients as “muppets,” sometimes over internal e-mail.”

The piece ran on the second day of new corporate communication chief, Jake Siewert. Continue Reading »

Can we give the Moron Award to Rush Limbaugh?

For those of you who haven’t heard, last week Limbaugh called a Georgetown law student a “slut” and a “prostitute” for speaking at a Democratic House of Representatives event. She called for  religion-affiliated institutions, such as Georgetown, to cover contraception in their health plans. Because it’s not covered, she said some pay up to $1,000 per year.

Apparently Limbaugh thinks she must be both a slut and a prostitute “if she required so much costly contraception.”

But then he upped the ante by saying she is, “A woman who is happily presenting herself as an immoral, baseless, no-purpose-to-her life woman. She wants all the sex in the world whenever she wants it, all the time, no consequences. No responsibility for her behavior.”

The National Organization for Women called for Clear Channel to take Limbaugh off the air and, while the company hasn’t done that, the advertisers are speaking. Continue Reading »

Oh come on! Seriously. Why is this so hard?

Yes, there is another company shutting down comments to their Facebook wall, ignoring tweets, deleting comments, and going silent.

This time it’s Claire’s Stores, who is accused of ripping off independent jewelry designer, Tatty Devine.

Last week the U.K. designer blogged, “Can You Spot the Difference?” and showed their designs next to images of the Claire’s mass-produced jewelry. Continue Reading »

We’re about to find out if Carnival Cruise Lines has learned their social media crisis lesson or if they’re going to continue their silence vows.

Yesterday, the Costa Allegra (of the Costa Concordia line) had a fire erupt in the generator room, leaving the ship without lights and air conditioning.

The soonest rescue boats will reach the ship is sometime today.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Italian Coast Guard officials said emergency generators are keeping the ship’s control room illuminated and communications equipment such as radios running. The paper is also reporting officials said the cruise liner is holding steady, despite five-foot waves in the area and passengers are being kept in the ship’s big communal rooms, not in their cabins.

As well, the ship is adrift off the coast of Tazania…where there have been a rash of Somali pirate attacks in recent months.

But, as of this writing, there is no mention of the fire or the Costa Allegra on any of their social networks. Continue Reading »

I’ve been watching, with great interest, how Carnival Cruise Lines has handled themselves during the past few weeks surrounding a crisis of tantamount proportions.

You may recall their sister company, Costa Concordia, is the ship that wrecked off the shores of Italy, killing 32 people and injuring more than 30.

Beyond the human tragedy, the company has found itself in a social media crisis, brought on by – you guessed it – themselves. Continue Reading »