Some more Public Relations

Another example from my class:

When Vincent Ferrari (Awesome name), tried to cancel his AOL account, he has a pretty heated conversations with the company representative over the phone. Watch the video first, its a bit long but its interesting:

The representative over the phone was eventually fired and AOL apologized to Vincent and the public for the incident. BUT!!!!! Some time later, an ex-employee at AOL said that she quit because the company made them say everything that the representative said in the conversation. It seems that the employee was merely reading a script and Vincent was not letting him do his job. I'm sure AOL received some pretty bad press when the public found out about this. They were given another chance to improve their PR when no one questioned their company procedures, but decided not to take it, hoping that the matter would fade away. Terrible PR. (Does anyone use AOL anymore? I'm sure some still have to because they failed at cancelling their account)

"WE BUHLEEVE IN YOU!"

So lets have a little fun today. Supposedly a serious and legitimate product, although i really thought it was a complete joke. This one of a kind product will be the answer to your depression or when you just aren't feeling good about yourself. In my opinion, this will never work. People need to hear these words from others they believe and trust, not from a machine. ALSO! why would you want to listen to something that says things that it doesn't even mean. Anyway, if this sort of product works for you you can buy the CD for $16.95. But if that doesn't work, you could add on the three puzzle pieces for a total of $24.95 (WHAT A DEAL!)

Anarchy Is Here

Probably one of the most intriguing commercials i have ever seen. I just can't seem to take my eyes away form this commercial. I just keep wanting more things to crash and burn. I didn't even take a moment to think of what product the commercial is promoting....until  I saw the Axe product at the end. My exact thoughts: "OHHHHHHHHHH! Makes sense.... Awesomeeee)

Example of Bad Public Relations

In my marketing class today, my prof posted a video of an example of what could happen when a company ignores good public relations. When Dave Carroll flew United Airlines from Halifax to Chicago to perform a show, his "Taylor Guitar" was damaged when the baggage crew mishandled it. Dave tried wanted United to replace the item but they refused. In response, Dave made this video:

The video went viral and in just one day, it amassed 150,000 views on youtube. The video now has close to 12 millions views. Wikipedia says that United stocke price dropped 10% within 4 days after the videos was posted!!! 

Yes, the airline company did eventually own up to their mistake and gave Carroll money to replace his old guitar, but he just donated it to charity because Taylor Guitars had already given him some 2 guitars plus props to make a second video. United Airlines really screwed up this incident. 

According to my prof, United hired Carroll to fix their public relations, which begs the question, how hard is it really to keep consumers happy? I would think that a simple "respect customer property" or "be nice to customers" statement would suffice. Though, hiring Carroll is itself a PR strategy: it eliminates the leader of the whole incident.

LOGORAMA!

This might be a bit old, but I think its still cool. Even the smallest details are logoed. According to Wikipedia, there are over 2500 logos and mascots in this video!  One of the most creative videos I have ever seen. Check it out below: