Smudging Tibet: A Crisis Corrective

TalentZoo.com | Beyond Madison Avenue | Flack Me | Beneath the Brand

Archives | Categories

By: Doug Bedell

Groupon's Super Bowl commercial appearing to trivialize Tibet has produced, among many other reactions, a critique of the web company's approach to crisis communication. On her Honestly blog, Cindy Ronzoni isn't impressed by Groupon's response, and we don't blame her. Cindy suggests a more relational version, which deserves attention by PR people as a crisis corrective.

Cindy feels Groupon should have owned up to its mistake and been more forthright in explaining it, instead of, as founder Andrew Mason put it, "taking a crack at why we created this campaign." Groupon will no doubt survive this incident, but it's an example of a clumsy corporate presentation before a vast audience followed by a botched explanation. This Web genius has a bit yet to learn about PR.

blog comments powered by Disqus

About the Author

Doug Bedell has a background in journalism and PR and is the proprietor of Resource Relations in Central PA, which focuses on organizational communication, crisis communication, and social media. His blog, “Beetles Beat,” can be found at www.ResourceRelations.com. On Twitter, he’s DougBeetle.

Digital Pivot on