2018 was quite a year. We experienced so many highs and many lows of all types. In my quest to determine the year’s public relations wins and fails, I realized I could generate a list a mile long. In the interest of brevity, I’ll limit it to my top 3 PR fails and wins.
PR Fails
3. The airlines – Where do I start? Last year brought some stunning fails for the airlines. To start off the year, a French Bulldog puppy died after being put into overhead storage. On the same airline, a few pets were put on wrong flights, not long after the first disaster. The airline made matters worse by handling the issues poorly. I may be partial, but they could have used a good crisis counselor. To end the year, another airline’s employees made fun of a child’s name — to her face. Animals and children are sacred, and the airlines failed dismally on both counts last year.
2. Facebook – Data breaches, selling private information to outside sources and general robotic “who cares” behavior by Mark Zuckerberg. The company keeps saying it’s sorry and it will do better, but new issues seem to crop up each week. Usage has fallen and the stock has dropped. I don’t think Facebook is going anywhere, but clearly the platform needs a PR overhaul – starting by teaching Zuck how to look human during interviews, so #zuckerborg isn’t trending again.
1. The government – No matter which side of the political spectrum you fall on, you can’t deny that this administration has had its share of noteworthy PR events. From the First Lady’s clothing – “I really don’t care, do u?” – to the President’s tweets that often cause his communications team to go into crisis mode, the administration is no stranger to disruption. There is a school of thought that all of these PR stunts are really a strategy to distract us from the real issues. In that case, are they actually fails or wins?
PR Wins
3. Starbucks – From a PR perspective, Starbucks handled the failure of one of its employees like a pro. The racist actions that the employee displayed toward customers simply waiting for an appointment never should have happened – no one can deny that. But, Starbucks really walked the walk on this one. The company took responsibility for a failure to perform proper sensitivity training and then actually shut down all of its stores to retrain its employees. I can’t think of a better way the company could have responded to such a negative incident.
2. IHOP to IHOB to IHOP – I know some might view this stunt as a fail, but I disagree. Prior to the fake change to International House of Burgers, how often did you see IHOP in the news? The “name change” may have been a bust and people may have thought the stunt was stupid, but it still achieved its goal – people were talking, a lot, about IHOP again. And that, is a win.
1. Hallmark Movies – Who know that the saccharine-sweet, same-plot-line stories about people unbelievably falling in love would have their day? It used to be that you had to watch in secret or admit they were your guilty pleasure. Now these always-a-happy-ending love stories themed to every season are actually in! The Wall Street Journal even got on the perfectly crafted Hallmark Christmas train with this article. That’s the sure sign of a win. P.S. check out our “How to Make Your Own Hallmark Christmas Movie” video.
2018 definitely held more fails than wins (truly, I had a hard time limiting the fails to only three), but it’s not 2018 anymore. Happy 2019. What will this year hold?
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