It is not uncommon to check the trending page on social media and see another business is under fire for a bad ad or product. Social media has a huge impact on the extremity of a crisis. On these social platforms, the public has the ability to share their opinion on a topic, sometimes receiving thousands of likes or views. Social media can either be a nightmare or a saviour for businesses in a crisis. The Lady Dorito Crisis and the Adidas Boston Marathon Scandal are great examples of how social media can have an impact on the outcome of a crisis.
Lady Doritos case
In 2018, Doritos purposed a new bag of chips designed for women specifically. The idea was to create a chip bag that was more “polite” and clean for women. Indra Nooyi, the CEO of PepsiCo, said about women, “they don’t like to crunch too loudly in public. And they don’t lick their fingers generously and they don’t like to pour the little broken pieces and the flavour into their mouth.”
This didn’t go over well with a lot of women, and some were quick to take to social media to share their feelings. A lot of women disagreed with the statement, saying that they ate Doritos the same way that Nooyi was suggesting men ate them. Twitter user Kate Ford wrote, “in response to Doritos lady friendly crisps I shall be eating the biggest crisps I can find crunching really loudly burping and carrying a packet of crisps as a handbag.”
The Lady Doritos idea was announced in an interview with Freakonomics, however it was only a concept. The actual product had not been made or designed. People online started to design Lady Doritos packaging, which made the public believe they were being launched. This is an example of how the internet can take a small fraction of an interview and create a crisis. Doritos had to make a statement, so the public knew that there was no product being made. They also took to Twitter, saying, “we already have Doritos for women — they’re called Doritos, and they’re loved by millions.” This was an attempt for them to reverse the statement and show that they agreed with the public’s opinion. However, the damage from social media was done and Lady Doritos was a hot topic in the news for many days.
I think companies can learn from this; before proposing an idea to the public, ask customers behind closed doors what they think first. Organize focus groups and surveys to ask consumers their opinion on new ideas. If Doritos had done this, they could have avoided a crisis.
Adidas Boston marathon scandal
Shortly before the Doritos incident, Adidas also went through a crisis. In 2017, Adidas sent an email to Boston Marathon runners that was unsettling to a lot of people. The subject line of the email read “Congrats, you survived the Boston Marathon!” This instantly made people uncomfortable because of the Boston bombings that happened at the Boston Marathon in 2013.
This terrorist attack killed three people and injured over 200 others. The subject line in the email was seen as inappropriate because of the past Boston Marathon disaster. The email was trying to use the subject line to congratulate the runners on completing one of the hardest marathons in the world; however, the association of the sentence with the tragic race four years prior was too similar. Some people took to Twitter to share the email’s subject line, showing the public the insensitivity of the Adidas company.
This could have been a huge crisis for Adidas, but a quick response from the company saved them. They posted to their social media saying, “we are incredibly sorry. Clearly there was no thought given to the insensitive email subject line we sent Tuesday. We deeply apologize for our mistake.” This heartfelt message was perceived as genuine and apologetic by runners and Adidas supporters. Even though there were tweets posted about the incident, a crisis was averted because of the fast reaction time and sincerity of the message.
Something that is important for all businesses to remember is to check over all their work with a critical eye. Even if this email is one of the smaller tasks in the day, it is always important to have someone else’s opinion to avoid errors or inappropriate language. This scandal does tell us, however, that when involved in a crisis, it is important to own up to your mistakes and reach out to the public as fast as possible.
Crises are inevitable – especially in the social media driven world we live in. Being able to avoid and control these crises is the key to success. We can learn from the Lady Dorito case and the Adidas Boston Marathon email that it is important to create focus groups, edit work, and reach out to the public quickly when owning up to your mistakes.
Social media can lend itself to so many crises, that it might just be the crisis itself.
Allison Henderson, BPR Student
