Scott Powell, President, Skyline Corporate Communications Group joined TheStreet to discuss how companies should handle bad press.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 Anheuser-Busch is one of the companies that has been in the headlines quite a bit this
00:03 year, a Bud Light related controversy, as you certainly well know.
00:06 I don't know to what degree you're comfortable talking about specific companies, but let's
00:10 talk about an issue like that.
00:12 If you were tasked with you and your team at Skyline with sort of handling some of the
00:16 PR fallouts for a name like Anheuser-Busch, what would that conversation have looked like?
00:23 Sure.
00:25 It's not always easy to handle a crisis, right?
00:30 This applies to a variety of different companies and crises.
00:34 What we advise clients is don't remain silent.
00:39 You have to say something.
00:40 It may be just that we're still investigating.
00:44 For instance, if you remember years ago when the Tylenol capsules were somehow laced with
00:50 cyanide and several deaths occurred, it's okay to say we're still investigating, but
00:56 to remain silent is very detrimental because investors, the public are wondering what's
01:03 happening.
01:04 Silence may mean culpability, may mean that they're guilty of this or that.
01:09 Really making a statement and either saying we're investigating, we're aware of the situation,
01:15 we're investigating it, or if they realize and understand the situation fully, taking
01:21 responsibility for it.
01:23 Saying this is what happened, maybe we made a mistake.
01:28 It wasn't intentional, but here are the steps that led to this particular mistake or this
01:32 accident or something like that, and explaining it.
01:36 Another company that's been very much in the headlines this year has been Target.
01:39 We talk about the backlash to so-called rainbow capitalism or pride month backlash.
01:44 How can companies you think overall better handle boycotts or protests, especially in
01:48 the face of unfavorable headlines when obviously this is very much the reputation of the brand
01:54 itself could suddenly be at stake in the minds of many of their long-time consumers?
02:00 It's a good question.
02:03 Public relations is challenging, and when a company's image gets tarnished, the effects
02:09 can be far-reaching.
02:12 Companies like Anheuser-Busch and Target need to ... I think they're trying to be inclusive
02:19 and friendly to a number of different groups and constituents out there.
02:28 Inclusion is obviously very important, but a situation where there's a risk for a public
02:38 image damage really goes back to what I said before, acknowledging the issue, acknowledging
02:45 maybe there was a mistake, maybe we didn't do this correctly.
02:49 Here's what we're doing to fix it, and here's what we'll do next time so that the same mistake
02:53 isn't repeated.
02:54 That's how companies can establish trust again and how they can engender confidence from investors
03:03 and from the general public by getting control of the situation by acknowledging maybe there
03:12 was a mistake, but here was the intent of this particular program with Busch or with
03:17 Target.
03:18 This is what we intended to do.
03:19 We intended to do good things.
03:20 We really did.
03:21 Here's what went wrong, and here's what we've learned from this.
03:24 That generally will help, as I said, engender confidence and trust in the brand, and it
03:30 won't be as much of a public relations issue or disaster.
03:33 Thank you.
03:34 [end]