Corporate Reputation Disasters

United Airlines ‘breaks guitars’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo

United breaks guitars06/07/09 –

While travelling on a United Airlines flight in 2008 with his band “Sons of Maxwell”, musician Dave Carroll overheard fellow passengers commenting that United baggage handlers were throwing guitars around the tarmac.

Attempts to alert the flight attendants were met with indifference. Upon landing, he learned that his $3,500 Taylor guitar had been broken during the trip. After nine months of back and forth communication and failed attempts to obtain a satisfactory resolution, United finally refused to take responsibility or provide any form of reimbursement.

So, Carroll wrote a song called “United Breaks Guitars” and produced a video and, of course, posted it to YouTube. It was an instant hit and stirred up additional ire among airline travellers.

Domino’s PizzaWhen two Domino’s Pizza employees filmed a prank in the restaurant’s kitchen, they decided to post it online. In a few days, thanks to the power of social media, they ended up with felony charges, more than a million disgusted viewers, and a major company facing a public relations crisis.In videos posted on YouTube and elsewhere this week, a Domino’s employee in Conover, N.C., prepared sandwiches for delivery while putting cheese up his nose, nasal mucus on the sandwiches, and violating other health-code standards while a fellow employee provided narration.The two were charged with delivering prohibited foods.By Wednesday afternoon, the video had been viewed more than a million times on YouTube. References to it were in five of the 12 results on the first page of Google search for “Dominos,” and discussions about Domino’s had spread throughout Twitter.As Domino’s is realizing, social media has the reach and speed to turn tiny incidents

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/16/business/media/16dominos.html

Domino’s Pizza13/04/09–Kristy Hammonds and Michael Setzer, two employees from a Domino’s franchise in the USA took food hygiene to a new level when they videotaped themselves deliberately performing unsanitary acts with food items and cleaning supplies in the store’s kitchen, then uploaded the clips to YouTube.

Though the two claimed it was a “prank” and that they never actually delivered the food, they were still fired and faced felony charges for their actions.

Once the video gained attention through Twitter and YouTube, it began to also dominate the search engines and Domino’s Pizza was immediately confronted with a public relations crisis that threatened the reputation of their 50 year-old brand.

Domino’s spokesman Tim McIntyre aptly summed it up when he commented, “We got blindsided by two idiots with a video camera and an awful idea.” Patrick Doyle, President of Domino’s USA issued a video response and the company set up a Twitter account to field inquiries

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/02/ryanair-slams-p/

RyanairWeb developer Jason Roe thought he'd discovered a flaw in Ryanair's website while booking a flight, and blogged about how it seemed that users could book a flight for a charge of '0.00'.Later that afternoon, someone calling themselves 'Ryanair Staff' posted the following comment, which we've published in all its glory:

"jason! you're an idiot and a liar!! fact is!

"you've opened one session then another and requested a page meant for a different session, you are so stupid you dont even know how you did it! you dont get a free flight, there is no dynamic data to render which is prob why you got 0.00. what self respecting developer uses a crappy CMS such as word press anyway AND puts they're mobile ph number online, i suppose even a prank call is better than nothing on a lonely sat evening!!"

Roe replied:"I have not lied, I found a bug in your site that allows a user to see a 0.00 price listed beside a flight. Yes, I have cleared a session, but you have not prevented session jumping! I hope to god a Ryanair management type reads this.

Ryanair can confirm that a Ryanair staff member did engage in a blog discussion. It is Ryanair policy not to waste time and energy corresponding with idiot bloggers and Ryanair can confirm that it won't be happening again."Lunatic bloggers can have the blog sphere all to themselves as our people are far too busy driving down the cost of air travel."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/5621970/Habitat-apologises-for-Twitter-hashtag-spam.htmlhttp://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Business/Habitat-Twitter-Row-UK-Furniture-Chain-Blame-Intern-For-Using-Iran-To-Promote-Spring-Sale/Article/200906415319105

• Heartless in the

extreme

• Habitat unwittingly,

or otherwise, tried to

hijack the Iran

Election hashtags on

Twitter

• Sparked a huge

storm of outrage

• Heartless in the

extreme

• Habitat unwittingly,

or otherwise, tried to

hijack the Iran

Election hashtags on

Twitter

• Sparked a huge

storm of outrage

http://www.brandrepublic.com/BrandRepublicNews/News/974801/Crisis-hit-Eurostar-discovers-social-media-users-want-marketing/?DCMP=EMC-DailyNewsBulletin

• 2,000 trapped inside the Channel Tunnel with little or no customer support

• News broken through social media

• Updates, photos, individual harrowing personal experiences all freely viewable

online

• CEO forced to respond immediately

• 2,000 trapped inside the Channel Tunnel with little or no customer support

• News broken through social media

• Updates, photos, individual harrowing personal experiences all freely viewable

online

• CEO forced to respond immediately

• Allegations and

counter-allegations

once discussed in

little more than a

courtroom and

reported in the

newspapers – now is

aired, discussed,

dissected by would-

be experts and

decided upon by the

court of public

opinion.

• Allegations and

counter-allegations

once discussed in

little more than a

courtroom and

reported in the

newspapers – now is

aired, discussed,

dissected by would-

be experts and

decided upon by the

court of public

opinion.

http://tupiwire.wordpress.com/2008/10/20/alstom-x-the-wj/