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Public Relations

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Crisis Mode
We are all involved in public relations (PR). Practicing positive self-promotion is a daily activity for most, and comes as a sort of side effect of human interaction. This constant effort to control and maintain an image can prove to be very taxing. Then, on top of that, crises can arise which demand extra attention and PR ‘magic.’ Even at the small scale of the individual this can prove stressful, and mistakes are often made. Imagine how stressful it can be for a corporation, a grocery chain, a political figure, or cultural figure.
Recently, Volkswagen (VW) came clean (please, excuse the pun here) about cheating on emissions test for their new diesel vehicles. This development is bad for the company’s image for at least two reasons. One, it shines a negative light on their internal culture and values because the issue was born from within the corporation. Two, VW’s reputation as a reliable, trustworthy brand has suffered some tarnishing as a large amount of people purchased cars under the false pretense of the tests. Luckily, VW quickly responded the situation: they immediately removed Chief Officer Martin to Winterkorn and announced an internal investigation. Also, they were honest the media: the with American Operations Chief announced, “We screwed up” (Hemus). It may take a while, but VW will seemingly be able to recover.
Grocery and health store chain Whole Foods was charged by New York City’s Department of
Consumer Affairs (DCA) for regularly overpricing packaged goods. This crisis represents
Secret 4 a as similar investigation in California earlier this year resulted in the company paying fines of $800,000 and agreeing to work towards better accuracy in pricing. So they obviously could have taken a lesson from that. Whole Foods initially wouldn’t own up, blaming the DCA for telling the public and charging

fines. They responded 6 days later with a video featuring the co-CEOs acknowledging the mistakes.
This might have helped had they not essentially laid the blame upon the employees responsible for the supposed incidents. One thing they did do well in the video was communicating they would that be ““ improving [their] training regarding in-store packaging, weighing and labeling processes”’ and implementing a ‘“company-wide third-party auditing process for all of [their] stores” (Stewart). This is good, but being a company nicknamed ‘whole paycheck’ and a having a marketing campaign stating
“values matter” leaves the company under very close watch when it comes to rectifying occurrences of over-pricing.
Long-time political figure Hilary Clinton has been dealing with the bringing to light of the fact that while Secretary of State she made use of a private email account and server. These realizations are only further exacerbated by additional allegations regarding foreign political donations made to both her and her husband. Her detractors in the press have looked at the situation as a sign of her not being honest. But Hilary in fact was honest talked and quickly the press. Sadly, her response to consisted of stating that she had legally done nothing wrong, not including any real emotional appeal and appearing a bit insincere. Also, she revealed that there had been a deleting of emails which only prompted more questions It has been noted that this story has been stretched a bit past reasonable limits. An example of
Secret 6 ight be seen here because, while questionable, Hilary’s actions do not m warrant so much attention and those critiquing her are likely doing it solely out of interest for their own personal/political agendas. This farce has not severely impacted her campaign for the presidency, but she has had to keep dealing with it.
Lastly, former Subway spokesman Jared Fogle has been suffering the seediest crisis of all. On 7
July his house was raided by the FBI on suspicion of the possession of child pornography. Subway did well in quickly
(within eight hours of the raid) stating that there would be an end put to ties with

Fogle, though Jared took a bit more time. He has now pleaded guilty to the filed charges and is
“”
accepting responsibility for what he has done’” and ‘“is also volunteering to make restitution to those affected by his deplorable behavior”” - this came through his attorney. So at least it can be said that Jared has been honest pologized
,
a
, and communicated plan. His image will very likely always a be hampered by this conviction both in and out of jail. Also, following the news, his wife has announced they will be getting divorced. There isn’t a real way this could turn out great for Jared, but he has probably done the best he he can.
The first ten months of 2015 have seen a slew of PR crises, including the aforementioned. The parties involved, whether with good or bad consequences, can all be said to have dealt with their respective situations. PR management is a crucial, significant part of life as we all do it. We, as individuals must deal with our social circles, etc. And the corporations, grocery chains, politicians, and spokespeople have the press to answer to. But the media connects us and them in the whole PR affair, which is an example of
Secret 1
.

Works Cited
Hemus, Jonathan. "Can Effective Crisis PR save Volkswagen's Reputation following the Emissions
Scandal?" Drum
The
. Carnyx Group, Ltd., 24 Sept. 2015. Web. 1 Nov. 2015.
Johnson, David. "Hillary Clinton Email Controversy: Crisis Management Tips."
CommPRO
. CommPRO
Global, Inc., 10 Mar. 2015. Web. 1 Nov. 2015.
Krauser, Emily. "Jared Fogle and Family Speak Out on the Former Subway Spokesperson's Child
Pornography Charges."
Entertainment Tonight Studios, Inc., 19 Aug. 2015. Web. 1 Nov.
. CBS
2015.
Neumann, Nikki. "Summer of Scandals - Lessons Learned from the Biggest PR Disasters."
Dotted Line
Communications
. Dotted Line Communications, 27 July 2015. Web. 1 Nov. 2015.
Stewart, Sandra. "3 Crisis PR Lessons from the Whole Foods Pricing Debacle."
Thinkshift
. Thinkshift
Communications, 21 July 2015. Web. 1 Nov. 2015.

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