Valley PR Blog

Novel to cure PR headache

By Angelo Fernando on February 21st, 2007 In Hype!

Last December, Google was more or less caught copying a Yahoo page, and quickly changed it. The page in question was for upgrading the Internet Explorer browser to version 7.

I loved Robert Scoble’s comments on a how he would fix the PR fallout. It includes hiring a limo to take the Yahoo team out to dinner, to make the ‘apology’ more meaningful, if slightly over the top. If you’ve read Scoble (Naked Conversations) you’ll know he always takes a novel approach to PR, about bringing back the humanity to communications and marketing. Sitting down and dining with the one you’ve offended –an interesting way to fix a broken conversation!

This week, we saw another approach to making amends for a complete mess up and bad buzz. Jet Blue’s passengers were stranded (or more accurately, trapped) in planes on Valentine’s day. Within a few days, CEO David Neeleman apologized, but he probably knew an apology wasn’t enough. It was swiftly followed by a passengers’ Bill of Rights, yesterday. This bill has many levels of compensation that will be offered to passengers if their flights are delayed, including if a flight doesnt taxi to a gate within 30-60 minutes. What I liked, which may be missed, is the fact that Neeleman (on NPR’s Talk of the Nation) called this a ‘living document’ and Jet Blue will keep adding to it.

These are potent ingredients of PR in a situation of damage control: the capacity to respond fast, and the commitment to incrementally add to the initial response. “Words are pretty hollow,” he acknowledged, so he was putting into place something that was more realistic.

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