There have been a slew of PR crises this summer, so we asked Hill + Knowltonhead of crisis/risk Kevin Elliott and kglobal crisis SVP Scott Sobel for their take on several. While they agree on the importance of prompt responses and authentic communications, their views diverge on particulars of the crises, as you’ll see in the charts below.
The first crisis is the response to the PA grand jury report about sexual harassment of 1,000 children by 300 priests during several decades. Elliott lauds the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops’quick reaction, which, he says, was textbook perfect.
Then there are Elon Musk’s tweets and erratic behavior, including a tweet saying he’d take Tesla private.
Next is the mid-June death of U of MD football player Jordan McNair, who collapsed during a late May practice. It took the school 8 weeks to respond. Contrast Elliott’s and Sobel’s takes on CBS/ Les Moonves. Elliott believes CBS is nearly ignoring the crisis. They agree on MoviePass, which they say must clarify its intentions or risk its existence.
Response to PA Grand Jury Report
Scott Sobel, kglobal
The Good - Though Pope Francis waited several days before acting, he issued the first worldwide apology letter in the wake of a PA grand jury’s revelation about 70 years of crimes against 1,000+ children by 300 priests.
The Bad - Rome lists no specifics about what preventative steps will be taken to insure such things don’t recur. In addition, there were no details about follow-through.
Future - The Vatican has condemned the pedophile priest epidemic before but there is only a shallow grass roots plan for prevention at the parish level, where it really counts. Little progress will be made until all levels of the church can show generations of good works and support for prevention and prosecution of offenders, with the church not being forced into revelations and actions.
Grade C-
Kevin Elliott, Hill + Knowlton Strategies
The Good - I’m adding the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) reaction. Its response was textbook perfect despite having to deal with bad facts. The Vatican, whose response was a bit slow, and USCCB expressed regret/empathy and responsibility. I’m always looking for regret/empathy and responsibility in initial statements. Both the Vatican and the USCCB had a good list of behaviors and vetting procedures in their statements. While many of the incidents in the PA report were old, I think the Vatican and USCCB did a good job of taking events from the past and applying them to the present. They have thought about how to get ahead of problems that we can see now with the clarity of hindsight.
The Bad - It’s true the Vatican didn’t move too quickly to issue a response, but the USCCB did. The Pope followed a few days later.
Future - The messaging of what I’ll call Catholic partisan groups, which have been speaking about the Pope and the bishops, has been pretty consistent and they’ve made very good use of their owned channels. We know from watching brands that endure and recover from a crisis about the importance of getting out fast, even when the fact set is bad. These institutions will recover because the USCCB and Vatican protected the brand despite bad, even terrible facts.
Grade A-, mostly for the substance of their initial response, which is authentic regret and a good list of responsible behaviors that we can all look at to see if they’re doing them and if they’re helping.
Elon Musk’s Tweets and Erratic Actions
Scott Sobel, kglobal
The Good - Musk’s beautiful mind and explosive ego figured out a way to get investors’ attention by tweeting he was going to buy-up Tesla stocks. The volatility Musk’s tweet unleashed helped short-sellers and big money investors make billions.
The Bad - Musk has yet to follow through. There’s nothing worse for the market and reputations than promises not kept. The SEC is rumored to be investigating Tesla.
Future - Musk has pulled off some of his boasts, but not always. Investors have long memories and you can cry wolf only so many times. The market will be skeptical and his stock likely will lose value until he comes through on at least some of his promises for more closely held control of his company. In light of recent news that Tesla will remain a public company, one wonders if Musk might exit at some point, a la Steve Jobs. Many entrepreneurs are ill suited to run their companies long term. Investors should strap in for a bumpy, but maybe very profitable ride.
Grade C+
Kevin Elliott, Hill + Knowlton Strategies
The Bad - That interview with the NY Times where Musk was described as tearful, well, I hope that’s the truth because it’s an important part of the story. You don’t want to see a CEO being described as tearful in a newspaper interview. As I said above, I want to see regret and responsibility, and I haven’t seen this yet. I see blame [of his girlfirned and the medication he’s taking]. I’d like to hear Musk say ‘I was wrong…it was ill considered and I’d like to have it back. What I was trying to do was express confidence in my company. And here’s what I’m going to do going forward.’ Since we’re talking about an individual, it’s difficult for the company to address it. In some ways, it’s easier to handle process things, such as an issue with manufacturing. You can look at that and re-make the process. It’s more difficult sometimes when you’re dealing with an individual, unless the person’s self-awareness is very high.
Future - When the public hears you blame external factors for a situation you have caused drives trust down. I think he has a real problem.
Grade C He could have done better. There’s a lot of room for improvement. The share price is likely to lag, though that doesn’t mean Tesla won’t do great things eventually and be well received.
U of MD and the Death of Jordan McNair
Scott Sobel, kglobal
The Good - A fairly slow but then decisive mea culpa to football player Jordan McNair’s surviving family; along with steps to punish the appropriate coaches and compassion for teammates who want to honor McNair. The University of MD (UMD) also enlisted outside advisors to investigate practices and potentially prevent future tragedies.
The Bad - It appears UMD’s investigative commission is focusing on the football program and ignoring the culture of athletics, which may not be putting students’ concerns and even safety as top priorities. There were several weeks between the time of the athlete’s death and decisive action; this period of delay could have been filled with proactive news and statements.
Future - The news and damage to reputation because of this tragedy will take years to dissipate but maybe not more than 3-5 years … the cycle of a student graduation and average football player’s college career. UMD’s ability to attract quality players won’t be hampered as much as other schools might have been owing to the state school recruitment model. Unfortunately, the fact-pattern at UMD that led to the tragic death of the young athlete is not unusual for high-powered athletic programs.
Grade B
Kevin Elliott, Hill + Knowlton Strategies
The Bad - What struck me about this is the amount of time that elapsed between Jordan McNair’s death and when we began to hear something from the University of Maryland (UMD) . With the PA grand jury report, we heard from the Vatican in a few days and the Pope a few days later. With this incident at UMD, it was weeks. That’s unacceptable. Forget for the moment the morality of not speaking clearly when you’re involved with something like this. When you’re the steward of a brand you can’t leave space for others to craft the narrative about you. That’s what happened here. The advice we give brands is ‘Get up, stand up and put on your big boy pants and express empathy, if you can find victims, and get there fast; tell them what you know and be transparent and accept responsibility, not necessarily liability, and be part of the fix.’ That it took UMD months to speak is a big fail. The other problem is how information dripped out during the silence. UMD finally came out weeks later and accepted full moral and legal responsibility for McNair’s death. This was not something it needed to do right after McNair died in mid June, but waiting for weeks was way too long.
The Future - I’m not sure they’ll ever get their reputation back as being the amazing place it once was. This school has such a great legacy and it’s an old school, founded in 1856. I can’t believe more heads haven’t rolled. Yes, the head coach is on leave and the head trainer is gone, but how is the athletic director still there? If this were a corporation the CEO would have to go. Then the board has to decide how to rebuild the program. After that the court of public opinion makes a judgment as to whether or not that’s enough.
Grade D+ It was a terrible set of circumstances and they’ve just not done the right thing. I give them the plus with the D because eventually they accepted full responsibility, but it was so late.
CBS and Les Moonves
Scott Sobel, kglobal
The Good - The CBS board reportedly declined to vote on Moonves’ suspension after reports of his sexual misconduct years ago. Moonves reportedly was in on the discussion. The CBS chief quickly apologized for his past behavior and tempered accusations by saying “no always means no” to him. His star wife Julie Chen also wrote statements and had heartfelt statements on TV and in print that she backed him up.
The Bad - Moonves is not as recognized by the general public as movie producer Harvey Weinstein and Moonves’ reported violations didn’t seem to be as sensational and weird as the allegations against Weinstein. The alleged victims were also not as high profile. The initial #MeToo public interest also seems to be dwindling somewhat. So, to a degree, the actions CBS took to move on past Moonves issues were relatively effective.
The CBS board did nothing dynamic to downplay allegations of Moonves being part of a good-old-boy culture, especially for executives, which encourages workplace harassment. The public and the news and entertainment industry are well aware of the different way CBS on-air “talent” Charlie Rose was handled and quickly dismissed after revelations and accusations.
Future - No doubt, CBS employees past and present, activists and #MeToo movement participants will be lying in wait with sharpened knives for more revelations or indiscretions by network executives because the perception is that CBS treated Moonves with kid gloves.
Grade B
Kevin Elliott, Hill + Knowlton Strategies
The Bad - This one is terrible and not only because the allegations are awful. If the USCCB response to the Vatican situation was textbook great, this crisis response is textbook horrible. I’ve never been in a boardroom and had a CEO tell me to give him a duck-and-cover strategy for because this crisis is going to blow over. I’m sure some of them wanted that, but nobody has asked me for it. This situation appears to be that, ie, CBS believes it can wait it out and it will blow over. I don’t know why it’s going this way. CBS had an internal conversation instead of an open, public conversation. The sound and feel of what’s been shared publically is that CBS thinks this is going to blow over. The strategy seems like they want to wait it out.
Future - The confidence in media is low, so maybe CBS feels ‘Nobody will believe us anyway,’ but I could see CBS getting into some quicksand over this. In time what seems like an unserious response will catch up with them, but I’m unsure we’ll know until we have the benefit of hindsight. The flip side of the country’s low confidence in media is that I think we have a lot of patience with media in what I’d describe as a media culture. They can turn this around, though I don’t see the markers that they are doing that. It’s not good.
Grade D They get a lower mark than UMD because I’ve never heard them take full legal and moral responsibility as UMD did eventually.
MoviePass
Scott Sobel, kglobal
The Good - The company attempted to be more transparent with subscribers about what happened and what will be done to correct mistakes that led to its services being cut-off when it couldn’t pay its bills.
The Bad - Still, it allowed its cash flow issues to kill subscriber services without giving subs a heads-up as to what was about to happen and then not having customer service representatives immediately available to take irate calls. Then, bouncing back and forth between setting subscription fees and creating an even greater perception of instability.
Future - Instability, instability, instability. MoviePass has had a rollercoaster ride of mistakes and indecision. Its initial business model of providing unlimited movies for a set fee was obviously a winner but the devil is in the details and in the execution of its concept. If the all-you-can-watch-for-a-set-fee idea didn’t work, then the company needed to wean customers off the sales promise with adequate warnings. If MoviePass wants to recoup confidence it must give subs a concrete and money-saving reason to hang-on and, simultaneously, carefully and deliberately provide constant communications about what will happen in the future and then keep those promises. Stability, stability, stability. Don’t miss a deadline. No more missteps. Or, another operator with more cash, better planners and businesspersons will take the original idea, execute better and eat MoviePass’ popcorn.
Grade C-
Kevin Elliott, Hill + Knowlton Strategies
The Good - They tried to apologize and did, eventually, but they didn’t do it very well and tried to clean up their apology. There’s an instinct here that MoviePass has about being part of the conversation. I applaud them for that. But they need to be super-clear about what they’re going to be in the future.
The Bad - This company appears to have no crisis management counsel at all. This is a case where communications can’t help too much because other factors are so awful. How do you run a company when your business model is changing so much? It’s like you have a company that’s in the trucking business one day and the next day says, ‘No, we’re now making high-speed railroads.’ What are they doing? What’s their offer? Consumers are unsure of what MoviePass is going to be eventually.
Future - Back to the elements I mentioned above, regret/empathy and responsibility. You have to show empathy right out of the box. And remember, even if you feel your customers aren’t victims of a crisis, they feel as if they are. They need to be treated as such, at least today. So say that you feel sorry for them because of what we as a brand have done to them. You must get a regret piece in there. And then you have to see some clarity about responsible behavior going forward. They need to reassure people they’re going to get this right. They need someone big in the movie industry, someone with credibility, to help them sort out things. What it looks like now is that MoviePass is just trying to make money and doesn’t care about the consumer. Someone has to be caring about the public and present the message objectively to the company. Often this is part of what an outside crisis consultant will do. It doesn’t look like anyone’s doing this at MoviePass. As a company they’re too young to be making these kinds of mistakes. They need to focus on the customer and their business. Their future for MoviePass is being measured right now.
Grade C- A caveat: MoviePass is not CBS or the UMD, it is young and has almost no past credibility to lean on, so its stumbles might cost the company its business.
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