By: Paige Strott
1. Delta Airlines made a huge error in World Cup tweet
Like many people and brands, Delta Airlines wanted to celebrate when the United States beat Ghana in their first World Cup Match of 2014.
To display this, Delta posted a photo (see left) to depict the two countries. Delta used the statue of liberty, which was an appropriate choice, since it is in the U.S. However, there are not actually giraffes in Ghana. This made the tweet appear to be stereotypical and it was clearly not researched.
Ghana is located in West Africa and giraffes are mainly located in southern and eastern Africa. Delta’s social media team should have been aware of this, especially since the giraffe photo was from Getty images and pictured a National Reserve in Kenya, on the opposite coast from Ghana.
After this was discovered Delta apologized for the error in another tweet. Read this PR Daily article for some of the responses to this mistake on social media.
2. New Pantene ad tells women to stop saying sorry
In their latest commercial, Pantene asked, “why are women always apologizing?” This is part of their strategy to support female strength for their #shinestrong campaign.
In the first half of the ad, there are women apologizing for various “offenses”. For instance, a man pulls a chair up to the conference table and three women apologize and move over. After a shot read, “don’t be sorry” and “be strong and shine,” the same scenarios came up, but this time women spoke their minds without apologizing and some said “sorry, not sorry”.
This is not the first time Pantene has addressed women’s issues in their commercials. An ad from last November depicted how men and women who do the same things are given different labels for it.
These ads definitely succeed in getting women’s attention while displaying the brand as progressive and empowering. To see the commercial read this article in Adweek.
3. Mississippi girl awarded $30K from KFC
3 year-old Victoria Wilcher suffered facial scars and the loss of an eye after a brutal dog attack. She was allegedly asked to leave by a KFC employee because her face disrupted customers.
Victoria’s parents posted a photo of her along with the story of her incident and the post went viral. KFC quickly apologized to the family and has launched an investigation into the matter. They have also given thirty thousand dollars to be put towards Victoria’s medical expenses.
This story is a lesson in how important internal communication is. It is possible that if KFC’s employees had received more training in customer relations, this incident would not have occurred.
Read more on this incident, and KFC’s investigation in this AP report on ABC news.
4. Federal office cancelled Washington Redskins’ trademark
On Wednesday, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office cancelled the Washington Redskins’ trademark saying the name is a racial slur towards Native Americans. While this will not force the team to change its name, and some say it is largely symbolic, the team may lose money in merchandising.
Redskins’ owner, Daniel Snyder, had dismissed the allegations that the name is derogatory and claims that it honors Native Americans, although he does not seem to have any Native Americans who agree. The National Congress of American Indians and the Oneida Indian Nation praised the verdict and saw it as an immense success.
Whether you agree that they should change the name or not, the team is receiving a great deal of negative PR because of the issue. For more on the decision read the Washington Post’s coverage.
5. Amazon Fire Smartphone was launched
This week, Amazon debuted their Smartphone at a conference in Seattle. The device has features such as a 3-D camera and facial recognition and will be released to the public in July.
Amazon did not try to keep the phone secret like other tech companies do; in fact they released a video, which received 2.6 million views, of people trying out the phone before the conference.
Speculators claim that the launch was a success for Amazon. The company invited members of the press and a limited number of fans to the event as a way to gain more brand advocates.
However, we will have to wait until July to see how sales do and to see if Amazon succeeds in breaking into this new market. Read more about the launch on PR week.
What are your thoughts on these PR news stories?