When crisis comms gets into a crisis of its own… kind of
It could be suggested that crisis comms crack teams in Australia have been having a good year.
Might there have been a few involved in sorting out the situation when Katie Hopkins randomly appeared in our country recently and then quickly got escorted back out? Surely there would have been a few involved with all the communications challenges around Astra Zeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine. For sure there are more than a few working for the Tokyo Olympics right now. Probably not so much at iSentia recently though.
Regardless, Dr Mumbo was fascinated to see a debate around the very art of crisis comms surface on Twitter recently.
In the words of R/GA no less:
Traditional crisis response PR doesn’t work anymore, sorry.
— R/GA (@RGA) July 19, 2021
Shots fired.
There didn’t seem to be any one example or anyone in particular R/GA was aiming for, or should we say Mr Chapin Clark, executive creative director of social content at the agency and “the voice of R/GA on Twitter”.
Just a few shots randomly fired off into the ether.
Unsurprisingly, the PR and communications industry came marching in with force to counter-attack.
That’s not entirely accurate. US-based JBLH Comms came to the defence of crisis comms. A quick left hook, followed by a duck and punch from Clark. Things were getting feisty. Dr Mumbo was about to pull out the good popcorn.
The MOST traditional crisis PR response that does work is to admit the truth & ASAP.
Yes, traditional crisis PR works.#crisisPR #crisiscomms 101
— JBLHComms (@JBLHComms) July 19, 2021
Until JBLH literally got tired and called in back up in a rather half-arsed manner.
@PRisUs @JuliaAngelenPR @Meadepr @Frank_Strong @MarCommScott @BradleyRoss @StephanieElsea @tressalynne @marybethwest @hindamitchell
Care to chime in on some case studies here for good crisis PR (read above)? I know we recently had a thread, but it’s 11pm & I’m tired…thx.
— JBLHComms (@JBLHComms) July 19, 2021
Oh dear. Turns out an attack on crisis comms isn’t such a big crisis after all. If anyone else wants to get involved, the good popcorn is still within arms reach.