Ship of ghouls – did Royal Caribbean commit a PR faux pas?

By on January 22nd, 2010 In Best Practices

If you were PR counsel for Royal Caribbean, what would you advise them to do?  Continue the cruise stops at Labadee?   Take the cruise passengers elsewhere and turn one of the fleet into a floating hospital?   Simply donate money to the Haitian relief cause?

You can read the background here in Advertising Age. 

I would have advised the management team to halt cruise stops for awhile, donate money to the fund, and re-start when the image of a high-tend cruise ship amongst devastation less than 20 miles away wouldn’t be such a flashpoint.  

You can argue, and many have, that continuing tourism to Haiti shows a positive sign, but I think the timing is a little off.   Wait a few months, and research other ways to help Haiti in the meantime.

Comments

Pat Elliott Says:
January 22nd, 2010 at 10:04 am

Linda – This will be interesting to follow. I wrote about it earlier this week for EmpowHer.com and we’ve had several spirited responses. Pat
http://www.empowher.com/news/herarticle/2010/01/20/cruise-ships-haiti-disrespecting-dead-bringing-much-needed-economic-suppo

Dan Wool Says:
January 22nd, 2010 at 10:28 am

“Oh yes, it’s dreadful,” the PR person said, watching it on CNN and checking his iPhone while too full to eat the other half of his catered lunch in his 54th floor New York office.

Dan Wool Says:
January 22nd, 2010 at 10:31 am

Seriously though, I’m satisfied with Royal’s response. It’s a tough call but their heart is in the right place. You can’t kick ‘em when they’re down. My only qualm is they might have waited a couple weeks, perhaps making alternate arrangements for their passengers and chipping the equivalent of the lost income to the locals in Labadee.

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