2019’s PR sins and wins

The year kicked off with a little de ja vu and a catastrophic typo that would leave most marketers to call it time on their career. Sydney commenced its fireworks celebrations announcing the wrong year. No, City of Sydney, we’re not all here for 2018 – we did that. Last year.

Photo credit: @michvllv

All the world’s eyes were upon Cardinal Pell’s sentencing in March for a six-year gaol term. The jury unanimously found Pell guilty of five sexual offences committed when he was Archbishop of Melbourne from 1996-97. As the Australian media was prevented from informing the public of the charge initially, international news leaks reached our shores. Over the years we have witnessed priests convicted for molestation and harassment charges and have yet to see the Catholic Church take a strong vocal and active position to protect minors, most recently reportedly standing by Pell’s appeal which is now set for 2020. As an institution that purportedly encourages truth, care and kindness, it’s a questionable stance given Pell was convicted following evidence in the court of law.

It appears restaurateur and TV chef George Calombaris has been busy cooking gourmet creations and beyond, as it was reported in media that employees were underpaid $7.8m. This followed initial revelations in 2017. George issued a public apology and a shake-up of the Masterchef line up was also announced this year. The media controlled the messaging agenda throughout the storm. If it is the case that the underpayment was self-reported, organisations need to consider all stakeholders to more effectively manage the fallout and messaging of a serious issue. In this case, both employees and the media should have been front-of-mind in communication as the self-reporting aspect was missed in a lot of the initial media reports and weakened the subsequent interviews and statements made.