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The marvellous Gerry McCusker has opened up nominations for this year’s PR gaffes.
Blimey, there’s a large field to choose from, including, as Gerry reminds us:
And as any PR-disaster watcher will tell you, 2007 has been another sterling year for botched PR jobs on the corporate and celebrity fronts. Please send in your favourites, and to jog your memory, you might recall…
The Cartoon Network’s bomb scare marketing stunt;
British Airways’ fuel surcharge fiasco;
Johnson & Johnson’s decision to sue the Red Cross;
Movie pin-up Ralph Fiennes’ Qantas toilet tryst;
US radio broadcaster Don Imus and the ‘nappy-headed ho’s’ slur
Aussie AFL footballer Ben Cousins’ sorry drug-related escapades
Heather Mills McCartney’s sometimes bizarre conduct under stressThere was also:
Fleishman Hillard – the PR specialists saw two of its ex-execs jailed for overbilling
Dr Pepper – a product promotion almost caused the exhumation of an historic graveyard
Ribena – had its vitamin C product claims debunked by two teenage science students
Whole Foods – their blogging CEO praised himself using a fake online identity
BBC – revelations that the UK broadcaster faked results of viewer phone-in competitions
FEMA – had its staff pretend to be news reporters at a badly attended press conference
Wing over to Gerry’s blog where luminaries such as Paull Young add their ten cents…
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Gerry 12.10.07 at 9:05 am
Thanks Lee; now what PR gaffe rocked your socks off?
lee hopkins 12.11.07 at 9:50 pm
The whole ‘Amanda Chapel’ thing stinks to high heaven, for me.
Gerry 12.12.07 at 12:40 pm
Whatcha mean?? The fact that she’s a series of he’s or that the blog closed then re-opened with indecent haste?? G (and ta for congrats on blog nomination)
Lee Hopkins 12.13.07 at 2:03 am
The whole ‘Amanda Chapel’ escapade — the conception, the birth, the vitriolic abuse as a way of getting traction, the collapse of the charade as though it was ‘planned’ that way all along, the resurrection…
Sordid and distasteful, and in an industry that has enough trouble keeping its house in order as it is. Pranksters like the Chapel team deserve vilification.