Adidas Apologizes for Congratulatory Message
Adidas may need a better review process. After the Boston Marathon, the company sent a congratulatory email about "surviving" the marathon, not thinking about the terrorist attack four years ago. During that event, two bombs killed three people and left several hundred injured.
The subject line to the marathoners read, "Congrats, you survived the Boston Marathon!"
Outrage was swift. People immediately saw that Adidas hadn't posted this intentionally but had failed to consider the connection and potential reaction.
The apology also came quickly and did the job. Admitting that "no thought was given to the insensitive email subject line," the company didn't make excuses or apologize "if we offended anyone"; they said plainly that it was insensitive.
Discussion:
- Are people too sensitive, or was this a real gaffe?
- How does a mistake like this happen?
- What makes this an effective apology?
Choate Apologizes for Sexual Abuse
Private school Choate Rosemary Hall, in Wallingford, CT, has uncovered sexual abuse by 12 faculty members. According to a report commissioned by the board of trustees, abuse going back to the 1960s was mishandled:
"Sexual misconduct matters were handled internally and quietly. Even when a teacher was terminated or resigned in the middle of the school year because he or she had engaged in sexual misconduct with a student, the rest of the faculty was told little and sometimes nothing about the teacher's departure and, when told, was cautioned to say nothing about the situation if asked."
Some faculty were given recommendations to transfer to other schools.
In a "Message to the Choate Rosemary Hall Community," posted on the website, the board chair and headmaster review the facts, thank the victims for coming forward, apologize, and promise action. The school hired Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) to review its policies and make recommendations. One conclusion in the letter follows:
RAINN has noted the strength of Choate's current confidentiality, amnesty, retaliation, and mandatory reporting policies; progressive training and education for students; and faculty and staff who are caring, empathetic, and supportive while preventing and responding to sexual misconduct on campus. Their recommendations call for continued codification of policies and procedures for reporting and investigating incidents, further review and refinement of adjudication processes, and additional training for faculty and staff who respond to incidents of sexual misconduct. We believe a commitment to constantly improving standards will provide more understanding and protection for our students.
Discussion:
- I'm skeptical reading the excerpt above. So, your policies are great? You just need to follow them? And of course, you need to do training, which everyone seems to say in these situation. Read the entire letter and form your own opinion. Am I too harsh?
- Should Choate have this letter prominently on its website? I followed a link from The New York Times, but I don't see any reference to the statement. What are the arguments for and against posted something, say, on the home page?
Sean Spicer Makes a Mistake
Another Hitler analogy gone awry? How is it possible? During a briefing with reporters, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer compared the use of chemicals by Hitler and President Bashar al-Assad of Syria:
"We didn't use chemical weapons in World War II," Mr. Spicer said. "You know, you had someone as despicable as Hitler who didn't even sink to using chemical weapons."
When a reporter questioned the statement, Spicer may have made things worse:
"I think when you come to sarin gas, he was not using the gas on his own people the same way that Assad is doing."
He then said people came into "Holocaust centers."
He tried to fix it: "I was trying to draw a distinction of the tactic of using airplanes to drop chemical weapons on population centers. Any attack on innocent people is reprehensible and inexcusable, but that didn't do it." Finally, he gave a fuller apology during an interview, although The New York Times calls it "contrite."
Discussion:
- Where did Spicer go wrong? Do you find his comments offensive? Why or why not?
- What's your assessment of his apology in the NBC News interview? Do you find it "contrite," as The New York Times says?
United Drags a Man Off the Plane
I'm not sure United thought this one through; people have cell phones. The airline needed to free up four seats so their employees could to get to Louisville. Attendants offered $400 and $800 but couldn't get people to relinquish their spots. Four people on the plane were approached; three left "without incident," as The New York Times reports.
But the fourth wouldn't budge. He said, "I'm not getting off the plane. I'm a doctor; I have to see patients in the morning." The Times reports the airline's perspective:
Charlie Hobart, a United spokesman, said in a telephone interview on Monday that "we had asked several times, politely," for the man to give up his seat before force was used.
"We had a customer who refused to leave the aircraft," he said. "We have a number of customers on board that aircraft, and they want to get to their destination on time and safely, and we want to work to get them there. "Since that customer refused to leave the aircraft, we had to call" the police, and they came on board, he said.
The man was removed by force, dragged down the aisle, and eventually carried out on a stretcher. A video shows the man, somehow, back on the plane, clearly upset, saying, "I have to go home." In this video, we see that his mouth is bleeding.
United issued a short statement from CEO Oscar Munoz on Twitter. Although Munoz apologizes for "re-accommodating" passengers, no public apologies have been made to the man or other passengers as yet.
UPDATE: Munoz issued a longer statement and, as NBC News tweeted, "found new words like 'disturbed' and 'horrific event'":
"The truly horrific event that occurred on this flight has elicited many responses from all of us: outrage, anger, disappointment. I share all of those sentiments, and one above all: my deepest apologies for what happened. Like you, I continue to be disturbed by what happened on this flight and I deeply apologize to the customer forcibly removed and to all the customers aboard. No one should ever be mistreated this way."
Spokesperson Megan McCarthy also said, "We recognize that our response yesterday did not reflect the gravity of the situation," Ms. McCarthy said. "And for that we also apologize. Our focus now is looking ahead and making this right. Judging from a letter Munoz sent to his employees, he may have been supporting them, protecting them. But customers must come first in a situation like this. Meanwhile, the passenger, Dr. Dao, has hired lawyers, four senior senators wrote United a chastising letter, and the company has lost $255 million in value. What may be worse (or perhaps, all for the best) are grumblings about potential disruptors for the commercial airline industry.
Discussion:
- What leadership lessons would you like to teach United's staff? What crisis communications lessons could they learn?
- Where did the airline go wrong? Try to identify all steps in the process.
- What's your view of the response so far? Should United say more?
Penn State Trustee Resigns After Putting Foot in Mouth
Five or so years after the scandal at Penn State involving a football coach, young boys, and an inactive Administration, the university is still in the news for bad behavior. Former coach Jerry Sandusky was convicted of rape and child molestation and is serving prison time. You may remember that Joe Paterno was also accused of cover-ups, but he died of cancer soon after the scandal broke and he was dismissed from the university.
Last week, the former university president, Graham Spanier, was convicted of child endangerment. FBI director Louis Freeh wrote in a report that for more than 12 years, Spanier and other Administrators, "actively protected a notorious pedophile who inflicted irreparable harm on countless child victims on the campuses and locker rooms at PSU. Although these men had multiple opportunities to stop this vicious, serial predator from continuing to sexually assault children who trusted the PSU campuses and programs as safe havens, they decided together to protect this monster rather than report him to the police."
After the verdict, one of the Penn State trustees, Albert L. Lord, said, "Running out of sympathy for 35 yr old, so-called victims with 7 digit net worth," and "Do not understand why they were so prominent in trial. As you learned, Graham Spanier never knew Sandusky abused anyone."
Lord has since resigned from the board, and it's unclear whether he was asked to leave. He also issued an apology statement.
Discussion:
- If the board of trustees didn't ask Lord to resign, should they have?
- Analyze Lord's statement. How well does this work to explain the comment, apologize, and rebuild Penn State's image?