A few weeks ago in our Weekly Wrap, we discussed backlash from public relations tactics used in times of crisis. All three examples we chose contained news articles about bold PR moves that ended in controversy. Even with the best of intentions, sometimes plans can go awry, but some PR strategies are simply destined to cause controversy. In this week’s Weekly Wrap, we discuss the obvious PR blunders that left us scratching our heads.
Prominent beauty and style magazine, Allure, has come under fire for using a Caucasian model in a recent story about afro hairstyles. Twitter erupted in anger over the alleged misappropriation of the “black” hairstyle and the missed opportunity of using an African American model. To add insult to injury, Teen Vogue faced a similar controversy just a few weeks before Allure printed the story. Lessons to be learned: be attuned to cultural sensitivities, monitor competitors and learn from their mistakes before you make them, too.
The Honest Company, a family-friendly consumer-goods brand owned by actress Jessica Alba, has been in the news lately after angry parents and customers turned to social media claiming the company’s sunscreen failed to block harmful rays. Photos of sunburns plagued the Twitterverse, blaming Alba for producing a faulty product. In an official statement, the company said it “stands behind the safety and efficacy of this product” and that the complaints “are less than one half of 1 percent of all units actually sold at honest.com.” The statement quickly sparked controversy among PR practitioners, who disagree with how the company handled the situation.
We’ve previously written about the tone-deafness Penn State demonstrated in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal by hiring a new coach whose previous team at Vanderbilt had been embroiled in a sex scandal of its own during the previous season, as well as the choice to bring in a new president whose football program at Florida State was under fire for sexual assault allegations against its star quarterback. With the sexual assault cases against several former players still unresolved, Vanderbilt football’s social media team on Thursday tweeted out a message that was, at best, a poor choice of words, if not completely insensitive to the plight of the alleged victims in the case. It was the historical nature of the assault investigation—not the actual words—that made the statement offensive. However, it’s another instance that underscores the need for organizations to consistently evaluate the context of their social media output with the same level of attention to detail they give to thinking up their attention-grabbing messages.
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Adam Tapparo is an intern at WordWrite Communications. Find him on Twitter @AdTapps. 
