OOPS- PR and Marketing Mishaps Published November - December 2007 When a make-good goes bad It was bad enough when one of the leading US toymakers had a crisis and had to recall over a million toys because of high levels of lead paint. But, a make-good goodwill gesture went horribly wrong when the company sent customers ‘bonus gifts’ so they would stay loyal - and they had to be recalled for the same reason. The company was RC2 Corporation in the US - maker of Thomas & Friends Wooden Railways toys.  Of course the company is blaming its Chinese supplier for the high lead paint levels - reportedly over four times the allowable limit in some cases. After the second recall, in a letter addressed to “Dear Valued Thomas and Friends Customer” the company said “We are deeply apologetic for, and embarrassed by, this turn of events, and remain determined to make it up to you and restore your confidence”. According to US media Thomas customers are far from impressed. Coming on the back of the Mattel crisis (see our previous story on this) it has left a very disgruntled group of American parents. Social media trips up Aussie ad agency An Australian ad agency and Virgin Mobile made the New York Times - and is facing a court action in Dallas - after allegedly ‘stealing’ a photograph off the social media site Flickr. The photo was that of Alison Chang a 15 year-old student from Dallas who posted a photo on Flickr after posing with a friend at a local church-sponsored car wash. Weeks later the photo was posted online and ended up appearing on a billboard in Adelaide as part of a Virgin Mobile advertising campaign. However Allison’s friend had disappeared and so had the Adidas logo on her hat. But added was a mocking slogan allegedly depicting Allison as a loser. Years ago ‘using’ such a photograph might have succeeded - after all what hope was there of it getting back to Dallas that a photo was being used at the bottom-of-the-world in Adelaide? But these days we are part of one world.  Word about the unauthorised photo ironically got back to Dallas through an Adelaide user of Flicr who wanted to ‘spread the news’ and wondered whether the people in the US knew how the photo was being used. As it happens they didn’t. And the result is a pending court action in Dallas and Virgin Mobile in Australia is not taking US media calls on the topic. Interestingly if you Google ‘Alison Brand - Adelaide’ you find 39 mentions of the story. However, if you Google ‘Alison Brand - Virgin Mobile’ you get over 250 mentions. Fake News Conference Backfires In the US the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has just done what will go down as one of the classics in how not to handle a crisis. FEMA decided to hold a news conference in the wake of the Californian bushfires so that reporters could obtain more information and insights. The only problem was that it wasn’t a real news conference. It: was announced only 15 minutes beforehand reporters who called in were able to listen but not ask questions questions were asked but it was not disclosed that those asking them were FEMA staffers some of the questions were ‘soft’ and gave the FEMA executives the opportunity to give flattering answers that showed FEMA in a good light. What has since become known as ‘the fake news conference’ has been universally condemned. Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff described it as “one of the dumbest and most inappropriate things I’ve seen since I’ve been in Government”. FEMA has since issued a statement saying that the agency was reviewing its press procedures to “ensure that all of our communications are straight forward and transparent”. Regret the Error Not an incident but a website - Regret the Error reports on media  corrections, retractions, apologies, clarifications and trends regarding accuracy and honesty in the press. It was launched in October 2004 by Craig Silverman, a freelance journalist and author based in Montreal. It’s an international online version of our ABC Media Watch and in October this year relaunched its website. http://www.regrettheerror.com/ Pitching to Bloggers Bloggers have long criticised the unsolicited email often from those in the pr profession. Last month Chris Anderson, editor in chief of Wired Magazine actually did something. He listed all the e-mail addresses of everyone who sent him an e-mail that month on to his blog http://www.thelongtail.com/ and said “I've had it. I get more than 300 emails a day and my problem isn't spam (Cloudmark Desktop solves that nicely), it's PR people. Lazy flacks send press releases to the Editor in Chief of Wired because they can't be bothered to find out who on my staff, if anyone, might actually be interested in what they're pitching. The emails were from some of the largest international pr companies and his post is sure to make an impression!

PR Influences: Oops - PR and Marketing mishaps