As more details unfold about the incident in Boston last week concerning Turner Broadcasting, the more we can see how quickly an organization’s precious reputation can crumble to the ground. If it wasn’t bad enough that the guerrilla marketing techniques caused havoc in the Boston area, the news that one of the two men responsible for the campaign videotaped police removing the suspicious devices and neglecting to say anything seemed to cross the line.
Although he has every right to stand by and watch his clever marketing ideas play out, some think he should have stepped up and responded to police the minute things got out of hand. If he would have taken responsibility as a player in this incident, or if Turner acted more quickly and responded with an effective press conference without talks of hairstyles, there might have been a chance they would have come out of this episode unscathed.
As a graduate student in public relations, this topic has brought our coursework to life and has been discussed several times this past week. Even though the incident generated a variety of opinions among students, everyone agreed that a valued reputation is too good of a thing to waste, even if it is on witty marketing scheme.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/02/06/suspicious.device.ap/index.html