Looming PR Disasters

[TheFugitive]

I had discussed on an earlier thread the PR crisis faced by the Pittsburgh Pirates organization when a photograph a noted terrorist was discovered, and he was wearing their ballcap.

Got me to thinking about other companies that have suddenly faced a PR crisis not of their own making.  I recall working for Service Merchandise in the 90's when we hired Bill Cosby to star in a series of high-profile TV ads.

The day after his picture went up all over the store we began joking that "the major career ending scandal involving Bill Cosby will now break any day now."  Such was the string of luck our employer was riding at the time.

Of course there WAS a major career ending scandal for Cosby....it would just not come to light for another two decades.  Got me to wondering what Service would have done if it had?  And what other companies out there had to face something similar?

[ynkeesfn82]

In the case of Service Merchandise and Cosby they probably would've had their lawyers to try to find an "out" in the contract.


BTW I mention on the television section here how TVLAND pulled the reruns of COSBY after the scandal broke, however I found out that the Centric Network still airs them. Centric is a corporate cousin network of TVLAND. TVLAND is owned by Viacom which owns BET which is the sister network to Centric.

And some criminals are okay on the Viacom Networks. Spike TV, TVLAND, and the POP Network were all airing Kevin Trudeau infomercials over the last couple days. Trudeau was sentenced to 10 years in prison last year. POP (the former TV Guide Network) is 50-something percent owned by Viacom.

[TheFugitive]

Yes, a lady in my church told me she had seen Kevin Trudeau back on television.
Unbelievable!