Nutella's Nuts

What company wouldn't want a day recognizing one of their popular products? Apparently, Nutella. Or at least they didn't think they did...

Six years ago, a fan set up a Facebook page to tribute 'World Nutella Day'. The page had over 40,000 likes on it. All was well in the world for Nutella lovers around the world. That is until the company that makes the delicious spread, Ferrero, decided they wanted to end World Nutella Day. They issued a statement to the creator of the fan page, asking her to take it down before legal actions were made. In response to the letter Sara Rosso wrote a post on the page saying, she was going to shutdown the page and all social media sites revolving around World Nutella Day on May 25. Fans of this page were not pleased, and many called the company crazy. Don't they know what good publicity is? Don't they know what FREE publicity is? It would be foolish for them to shut this down. They don't have to do anything to run this site and all it does it generate free, positive publicity for them. Why in the world would they want to stop that? 

Luckily, the company came to their senses and decided to allow Sara Rossow to keep the page up and continue to celebrate World Nutella Day. Companies have to think about how their actions are going to affect their PR efforts. Ferrero was practically threatening someone for doing something positive for the company. Good thing they didn't follow through. Nice save, Nutella. 

Scandal

If you're a PR person and you don't watch the ABC show, Scandal, I HIGHLY recommend you do. Season 1 is on Netflix, you're welcome. A brief background on the show,

 Actress Kerry Washington plays the main character, Olivia Pope. Pope heads a crisis management firm in Washington, D.C. that takes on big-name clients with major PR problems. Her staff is made up of lawyers, but they rarely go to court. Pope refers to them as gladiators, and their toughest cases appear in the court of public opinion.

I just recently started watching this show and it has helped me procrastinate during this lovely finals week, and has taught me a lot about public relations and crisis management. Just thought I'd share!

"Top Shelf"

Imagine taking a shot of what you think is going to be some top shelf Grey Goose, only to realize it was actually some cheap vodka with a name no one even knows?

Some restaurant chains on the east coast, T.G.I. Friday's specifically, thought they could get away with filling their top shelf bottles with cheap liquor and selling the drinks for top shelf prices. Well, they thought wrong.

An investigation started after allegations of the goings on and 29 bars were raided. 13 of the bars were T.G.I Friday's and news was out that they were lying about what was being served. Customers were not happy to hear about this and took to the restaurants Facebook page to express their opinions. Friday's had just announced they were going to release 'new spring drinks' in which customers responded with comments like, "by new drinks do you mean cheap liquor advertised as top shelf?

The restaurant was contacted and a spokesperson said, 

“TGI Fridays was just made aware of this issue and is working closely with the franchisee and owner of the cited locations to review and investigate these serious allegations. We have one of the most extensive bar and beverage programs in the industry, which sets a very high standard in the quality and service of our beverages.” 

This just sounds like a load of crap to me. Oh really, you were just made aware of this issue? Yeah, okay. If you have such an extensive bar and beverage program in the industry then why do you feel the need to fill top shelf bottles with cheap liquor? That doesn't sound very extensive to me.

Papa Murphy's Pocket Dial Fail

It happens to the best of us, you slip your phone in your pocket without locking the screen and with your butt, dial someone in your contacts. I've called a friend before while belting out some Adele (not well) in my car, only to find she was listening the whole time. Embarrassing. 

Imagine pocket dialing someone while you were talking badly about them, and they heard the whole thing. That's exactly what happened to a customer after receiving his pizza from Papa Murphy's. The pizza deliverer pocket dialed the customer after returning to the store, and in a conversation with some co-workers repeatedly a racial slur, use your imagination, over and over again. He used the term in a song as if he was singing opera. His reasoning for this was because he claimed the customer did not tip him. 

The customer took a video of the receipt from the order, showing the 21% tip that he left, and played the pocket dial that went to voicemail. This video made it's way all the way back to the CEO of Papa Johns who posted a message to their Facebook page saying, 

I would say the CEO handled this extremely well. Stating that the drivers actions defy his and the company's values and will not be tolerated. The driver was terminated immediately. I hope he feels like a dumbass now. Complaining about not getting a tip, when you clearly did. Karma for being a liar and an idiot. 

Cheers, Cheerios!

Think of all the TV commercials you've seen ever in life. Okay, that's alot to ask but can you think of any ads that have featured interracial families? Probably not. I can't and I've been exposed to hundreds and hundreds of ads over my lifetime. Yes, I watch too much television. Anyway, Cheerios put out an ad that featured a white mom, a black dad, and obviously a mixed child.

The feedback could have gone either way on this topic. Unfortunately, it had some backlash and people responded rather negatively and has spawned a rash of hate speech. In response to these negative comments, Cheerios decided to disable the comment feature on the video.

The VP of marketing claims feedback has been positive, saying,

“Consumers have responded positively to our new Cheerios ad. At Cheerios, we know there are many kinds of families and we celebrate them all." 

So is he making this up? Or are they really responding positively? According to the comments that were posted before it was disabled, people weren't too fond of the commercial.

Did Cheerios do the right thing but simply making it impossible for people to comment on the commercial? How are they supposed to get any honest feedback now? I understand why they would do it, to avoid the negatives, but it isn't a realistic way to deal with the reality of the issue.

Lululemon's Sheer Brilliance

Remember earlier in the year when I wrote a blog about Lululemon's see through yoga pants that were recalled and cost the company hundreds in profits? Well, the company found the silver lining and turned this crisis frown upside down. They put released a new pair of yogas that supposedly show nothing and had people test them out. In a Lululemon blog they talked about how they were able to learn from their mistake and look harder into how to make their yoga pants the best they could possible be.

The blog post read,

“You may have missed that we had some issues with our black luon bottoms. The luon setback allowed us to take a hard look at every aspect of this fabric and how we design. Your (extremely) honest feedback made this possible … 

“And speaking of science, we even got some university scientists to help us developed a "sheer-o-metre" which measures the amount of light coming through the fabric while being stretched at varying degrees. 

“We’ve also re-engineered our luon bottom patterns in each and every style to minimize the stretching of the fabric. Basically, that means there’s now more fabric across the bum so it's not stretched from the get-go.” 

Good job, Lululemon. Way to turn a negative into a positive!

Taco Bell Shell Licking

If you're stupid enough to lick a stack of taco shells at work and take a picture of it, then you are probably too stupid to even have a job. Even if it is just at a fast food restaurant. (No offense to fast food workers) Of course the picture is going to be posted to social media because our generation just can't seem to resist posting their every move on some social network site. Well, the genius that licked a stack of taco shells and had someone take a picture of it, got his picture posted on the Taco Bell Facebook page. Not only does this guys actions reflect badly on him, but it affects every Taco Bell around the world. Now when I go to Taco Bell and get a taco I'm going to wonder if some loser just licked the shell I'm about to take a bite of. 

However, Taco Bell is handling this issue fairly well. They wasted no time releasing a statement about the picture saying,

"Nothing is more important than the safety of our customers and team members, and we have strict food handling procedures and zero tolerance for any violations. When we learned of the situation we immediately contacted this restaurant's leadership and although we believe it is a prank and the food was not served to customers, we are conducting a full scale investigation and will be taking swift action against those involved."

Distracted Driver Flips on Freeway

What's worse than a distracted driver? A distracted semi truck driver. That's what the driver of a semi that flipped over during the morning commute claimed was the reason for his crash; he was distracted. This crash involved three other cars, causing minor injuries to their passengers, and a two mile backup.

Luckily, no one was hurt, but what about this guys job? The company he drives for hasn't released a statement about the crash. Is the fact that he was distracted an acceptable excuse for causing such a mess? If I was the company I would make a statement apologizing to those involved in the crash and everyone that had to sit through two hours of traffic that morning. I would look into the real reason this guy was 'distracted' and go on from there. If he was on his phone or doing something else that was obviously taking his attention off the road he would not be driving for my company anymore.

"Don't Make Me Turn This Plane Around"

109 high school students and their chaperones were kicked off a plane that was to take them to Atlanta for their senior trip. Reading that statement one may think, yeah they were probably being little assholes like high school students usually are, they probably deserved to be kicked off. Well, the flight crew along with the pilot and other witnesses claim they were being little assholes. Okay, so hey didn't necessarily use that term, but they said they were loud and disrespectful and didn't listen to instructions. So, they flight crew did what was necessary and kicked them off. What's the big deal?

The thing that is making this story national news is the fact that the students were from an Orthodox Jewish high school. So now it becomes a question of prejudice. Were they really kicked off because they weren't following directions, or is it because they were an identifiable religious group? The students claim it's because they are Jewish, while witnesses are saying there wasn't a single racial slur said throughout the whole ordeal.

One student said,

"They treated us like we were terrorists; I've never seen anything like it. I'm not someone to make these kinds of statements," Zehavi said. "I think if it was a group of non-religious kids, the air stewardess wouldn't have dared to kick them off."

A passenger that was seated in business class said about this being an issue of prejudice,

  "Absolutely not," he said. "There was not one ethnic slur from anyone on the flight crew or anyone who was inconvenienced for two hours.

So, now the school has opened an investigation to get to the bottom of this. Southwest Airlines hasn't released any statements. Students did say that they were quick to accommodate them and find them other flights to get them to their intended destination. Is that their way of covering their asses and thinking this wouldn't blow up to big a big national story headlined on CNN? Well, if that's what they thought they were definitely wrong.