BulletProofBlog the blog on crisis communications

Each Monday, Bulletproof Blog now features exclusive interviews with thought leaders on issues of critical importance to companies and countries. This week, with professional athletes like Michael Vick, Plaxico Burress, and Alex Rodriguez contributing to a steady stream of negative sports press, we interview Randy Cross, a former NFL star and current commentator on CBS Sports and SIRIUS Satellite Radio. During a 13-year career with the San Francisco 49ers, Mr. Cross won three Super Bowl Championships ... READ MORE

Some people never seem to learn, even if a painful lesson is taught over and over again. One such lesson is that transparency is a prerequisite for effective advocacy. The latest example was uncovered by the New Bedford Eagle-Tribune newspaper in Massachusetts. Among the many hundreds of letters to the editor the Eagle Tribune recently received, there were three that appeared to be from elderly people arguing for the preservation of the Medicare Advantage program - ... READ MORE

Johnson & Johnson's response to the Tylonel tampering case more than two decades ago set the standard for crisis response and taught companies to take swift action, running to the light, rather than from it. Following the Enron, WorldCom, and Tyco accounting scandals, Sarbanes-Oxley legislated transparency. And this week, with the Domino's viral video, we have arrived at yet another watershed moment. Once again, the cheese has moved and business as usual will no longer suffice. Companies ... READ MORE

After high-profile recalls of tomatoes, spinach, pet-food, peanuts, and pistachios, food safety concerns are as prevalent as ever. Data released last week showed that, after decades of progress, food safety in the U.S. is no longer improving. Last month, a new study revealed that Americans are just as nervous about food safety as they are about the War on Terror. And even President Obama has weighed in - making food safety the central theme of a ... READ MORE

Yesterday, I wrote about the current reputational crisis facing Domino's Pizza and the need for the company to engage critics on YouTube - the medium that gave rise to the crisis in the first place. It seems that as I was writing, Domino's was acting. Domino's President Patrick Doyle responded yesterday with a viral video of his own, in which he apologizes for the incident, thanks the online community for alerting the company to the problem, and ... READ MORE

Fresh on the heels of a social media blitz that forced Amazon.com into a difficult situation earlier this week, Domino's Pizza is now facing an extra-large reputational crisis of its own - thanks to two former employees that posted a YouTube video of themselves doing some pretty unappetizing things to pizza's sold for consumption. Thanks to the viral nature of the digital realm, the video shot to 760,000 views within the first 24 hours - due ... READ MORE

It seems like Amazon.com has been a household name for as long as there's been an Internet. But over the weekend, the digital pioneer surprisingly missed a golden opportunity to engage the online conversation and nip a developing reputational crisis in the bud. According to a statement released by Amazon on Monday, "an embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error" caused thousands of the books sold on its site to lose their spots in sales rankings and become ... READ MORE

While recent events have brought the issue to the forefront of international debate, shipping companies have dealt with rampant high-seas piracy off the East Coast of Africa and in Asian waters for years. Some larger companies have crisis communications plans to deal with the media and other audiences when a piracy event occurs. But beyond that, corporate communications about piracy has been muted, probably because in the overall scope of the shipping industry, it has been ... READ MORE

A complicated new problem and a potential windfall for plaintiff's lawyers is emerging in the already beleagured home building industry. But one big builder is scoring points for stepping up and doing the right thing. Drywall is that paper and plaster composite that is ubiquitous in modern construction. Most of the interior walls that surround us at home and at work are made of the stuff. Drywall is usually hardly worth a second thought - that ... READ MORE

When more than 10,000 Moldovan youths gathered on Tuesday to protest the nation's Communist leadership, we were provided further evidence that online communications are increasingly facilitating offline assemblies - everywhere around the globe. Organizers used Twitter, Facebook, and text messaging to spread word of the demonstration, share first-hand accounts of the day's events, and express the opinions that led to protest in the first place. The fact that this comes just one week after social media played a ... READ MORE