technology doesn't solve problems, people do
One of my clients sent me this link to a very creative and useful reminder of how the web has evolved – especially in the interaction between browsers and various web technologies. I’d like to see them add the social element in as well in the next edition…
I recommended in my post on the 13th that those responsible for this mess be fired; if not for ethics violations, then at least for incompetence. And there are people responsible for this on the Facebook as well as the Burson-Marsteller side of this debacle.
It is quickly becoming a grand case study of “How-Not-To-Do-It.” Now Burson-Marsteller admits to removing a post critical of their behavior from their fan page. Although they immediately backtracked and promised to issue an apology to the poster, the immediate knee-jerk behavior is old-school controlling to the core.
Thanks to Wired we know that the two responsible (or at least the two that are going to take the blame) on the Burson-Marteller side are going to get off scot-free:
Instead, Mercurio and Goldman, both high-profile former journalists new to Burson, will receive additional ethics training, the company said.
Really? Journalists, high-profile at that, didn’t understand the ethics of this? Didn’t get the sleaze factor? Didn’t think about the potential blow-back?
In every company I’ve ever been in, if you don’t get the culture and ethic of the company pretty quick you get fired. The entire things feels like spin-control and a cover up for more senior decision makers to me. If it really was just these two former journalists involved, Burson could have resolved this in hours.
I don’t know these men (and possibly women) involved, and I don’t have to. It’s not about them – it’s about the possibility of salvaging a company. It was a reputation damaging action and if Burson wants to keep any shred of its reputation and dignity, it should clean house now, not next week.
At least the Brits get it:
… the former Chairman and CEO of Burson’s British business absolutely ripped apart the firm’s tactics, calling them “furtive and creepy.”
I predict a mass exodus of the best and brightest from Burson in 3, 2, …
In the mean time Facebook, as noted by Dan Lyons in Facebook Smear Blame Game,
…will do what it always does when it gets into trouble: refuse to apologize, admit no wrongdoing, stop talking and wait for the storm to blow over.
If so, that would be the first smart move they’ve made in this sorry episode.
It might be the first smart move Dan, but it won’t replace the trust they just squandered in this “sorry episode.”
Wow. The sheer lack of respect. I’m not astounded that Disney pulled this stunt, but I am astounded that those in charge of the trademark office don’t have the common sense to reject this out of hand on the basis of well, sheer common sense. WTF!?
Some congresscritter should take the reform of the trademarks as well as the patent office on as a cause. There is enough screwed up stuff in both cases to make a career.
In a perfect example of a big media company looking to capitalize on current events, The Walt Disney Company has trademarked “Seal Team 6,” which also happens to be the name of the elite special forces team that killed Osama Bin Laden.
The trademark applications came on May 3rd, two days after the operation that killed Bin Laden… and two days after “Seal Team 6″ was included in thousands of news articles and TV programs focusing on the operation.
Disney’s trademark applications for “Seal Team 6″ cover clothing, footwear, headwear, toys, games and “entertainment and education services,” among other things. more…
I hope the Navy sues Disney and wins.
In case you haven’t seen the news:
The social-networking company secretly hired a public-relations firm to push stories critical of Google’s privacy practices. But the strategy backfired when bloggers and journalists disclosed Facebook’s behind-the-scenes role, forcing the company to explain its tactics.
Facebook hired WPP Group PLC’s Burson-Marsteller to pitch journalists and security experts on stories that questioned Google’s practice of collecting information from people’s Facebook and other social-networking accounts. Read more
Everyone involved at Facebook, Burson-Marsteller, and WPP Group is (or should be) embarrassed and ashamed. I wonder what they were thinking. Did they really believe they could use social media to run a behind-the-scenes smear campaign against a major competitor and get away with it? Social media is known for being transparent. Anyone that reads the news on a regular basis would have bet that this would have ended badly.
One might argue the case against firing the individuals responsible on the basis of character or ethics violations, but I defy anyone to argue that they shouldn’t be fired for incompetence.
A “Historical Moment.”
I, as everyone else, remember exactly where I was when I first heard the news of 9/11. And I have often wondered why, with all the full might and intelligence of our military, that we had yet to locate Osama bin Laden.
But now, we have. I’m sure we’ll learn more in the coming days of the search, operation, and killing of bin Laden. For now, we can be grateful that justice has been done, and without the loss of additional American lives.
Update:
I predict that it won’t be long before someone in the news media attempts to draw a parallel between the celebration outside the White House at the death of Osama bin Laden with the celebrations throughout the middle east on 9/11. They will conveniently forget to mention that in the case of the earlier, it was a celebration of the loss of innocent life, and in the case of tonight, it is a celebration of justice (however poor in taste some of the celebrations may have been).
