Crisis communications authority Molly McPherson has been called in to handle no shortage of corporate fiascos. But while the brands vary, the incidents all have one thing in common: The first move is generally a sign of how well things will turn out. Or not.
“If your first instinct is to blame, you’re not going to get through it,” said McPherson at ADWEEK’s Social Media Week summit on Wednesday. A crisis signals that “the public is feeling an emotion about [your brand]. You have to tap into that emotion.”
All too often, however, brands fail to do that—and pay the price.
McPherson cited a few examples of crises handled well, such as American Airlines’ rapid and sympathetic response to the midair collision in Washington, D.C. in January. But a gaffe can just as easily escalate, too. Here are three recent disasters McPherson cited, how the brands managed them, and how they could have done better.
The language barrier that really mattered
On March 22, and Air Canada Express flight collided with a truck while landing at New York’s LaGuardia airport. The accident killed both pilots, one of whom was from Coteau-du-Lac in French-speaking Quebec. But when Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau issued his on-camera condolences, his only French consisted of “bonjour” and “merci.” The public was outraged.
Canada’s Official Languages Act designates both English and French as the country’s official languages, making the oversight baffling—though not to McPherson.
“I see this all the time with senior leadership, when they don’t think the public is even worth the time. The biggest driver of a crisis is contempt, and that’s what happened here,” said McPherson, who pointed out that public sentiment should always inform every response. (Plus, in this case, a simple teleprompter could have prevented the debacle entirely.)
But the carrier has taken its licks and seems to have recalibrated. In its search for a new chief executive, Air Canada’s board promised it “will consider a number of performance criteria … including the ability to communicate in French.
Confusing DEI with a marketing strategy
Long before the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests spurred brands to get inclusive in a hurry, retail giant Target had made diversity, equity, and inclusion its corporate mission, notching a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index as early as 2009. But last year, amid pressure from the White House and far-right activists, a host of blue-chip companies dropped DEI like a hot potato.
