English I need help doing assignment
Social Media Crisis
2 years ago
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FSocialMediaCrisisAssignmentSheet2.docx
Crisis_Example_2_adidas1.docx
Crisis_Example_1_Cinnabon2.pdf
FSocialMediaCrisisAssignmentSheet2.docx
1
Social Media Crisis
Brand controversies are prominent on social media. Anyone who is a social media manager will have to deal with these controversies—some of them are the brand manager’s fault, some of them are the brand’s fault, and some of them have many people to blame. Many of these controversies come about because of a brand’s unethical behavior or statements, some come about from lack of attention to potential problems, and a small amount are unforeseeable. No matter how the problem happened or who started it, the brand manager on social media is going to hear about the issue. Thus, it is important for people learning about social media and social media management to study past controversies on social media and think about what to do in those situations.
I’d like you to write a 750-1250 word paper on a recent brand controversy and its relationship to social media. You can see examples of social media crises your assigned readings. Each of these controversies resulted in a large amount of social media attention. You may not use Cinnabon’s Carrie Fisher Controversy or adidas’ Boston Marathon Controversy as your controversy, because the example papers are on those topics.
To write this paper, you must pick a specific social media brand controversy. You can pick one from the readings in this unit or pick a different controversy if you like. The controversy should be one that started on social media, not that was argued on social media: for instance, the Starbucks Red Cup controversy was argued on social media, but the starting point of the controversy were physical cups, not social media content. The goal of this assignment is to think about a social media controversy from the perspective of a social media manager. How did a brand respond to a social media controversy? Was that response good or bad? What can be learned from the brand’s response to the situation?
Student Learning Goal
Students will recognize, understand, and analyze the context within which language, information, and knowledge are produced, managed, organized, and disseminated. Students will also integrate previously held beliefs, assumptions, and knowledge with new information and the ideas of others.
The Successful Paper Will
1. Introduce a crisis that originated on social media (10%)
2. Explain the brand and what the brand was trying to do that caused the crisis (20%)
3. Explain why people on social media responded the way they did (20%)
4. Explain how the company responded to the crisis (or if they responded) on social media and why they responded the way they did (20%)
5. Analyze whether the company responded well or poorly on social media. If they responded poorly, brainstorm ways that they could have responded better. If they responded well, explain why their response was effective (20%)
6. Turn in a draft on time (10%)
Stipulations
· 750-1250 words
· Images and screenshots are encouraged
· Images should be captioned
· You should cite in APA articles that you quote, but you do not have to list tweets or posts in your Works Cited page; instead, you should provide in-line links to any social media you cite or include as an image
· Works Cited does not count toward word count length
· You may send me drafts for my analysis up to 48 hours before the final due date; this will give me time to read it and you time to implement my suggestions
· Draft minimum: Your draft should have at least an outline of your thoughts for each section of the paper (sections that correspond to the rubric points, or other organizing scheme that reflects all of the points of the rubric) to get full credit for this paper as a draft.
· Due dates for draft and final are listed in Canvas and on the Calendar.
Social Media Citation
As for citing social media: if you screencap a whole tweet or Facebook post and include that screencap as an image in your proposal, that post is self-evident in its citation. However, if you quote part or all of the language of a social media post in your report prose, you will need to accurately cite that social media. Here is a link detailing how to cite social media in APA.
Formatting
You must cite sources in APA style; however, you do not have to format the paper in APA style. You can choose to format the paper in APA style (double spaced and indented paragraphs) if you wish.
I am also giving you the opportunity to format the paper in business style ( also known as the Block Format) instead of APA format, if you choose. In Block Format, you will use single spacing for your paragraphs, place one blank line between paragraphs, and not indent your paragraphs.
Also, whether you use APA or Block Style for your formatting, you do not need a cover page or an abstract--but you do need a citations page. (You don't need to make a thesis out of this assignment, but I would expect your analysis to include support from at least two outside sources.)
Crisis_Example_2_adidas1.docx
Social Media Crisis - 2013 adidas Boston Marathon
Crises happen on social media with individual celebrities and brands all of the time. Of course it would be great for none of these controversies to happen but it really shows what a brand or person is made of when they deal with one of these situations. The Boston Marathon was the setting of a horrific event in 2013: two homemade bombs were set off, injuring several hundred people and killing 3. Adidas has sponsored this marathon for quite some time, and in 2017 had an email set up after the marathon was finished to be sent to those that finished. The email was headed “Congrats, you survived the Boston Marathon!” As one can see, this is a terrible line to say just four years after the terrible events that occurred. The people at Adidas must not have noticed to take down this automatic email.
Header for the email in question
WHAT HAPPENED?
Adidas has sponsored the Boston Marathon for quite some time and was simply trying to continue their marketing campaign with it by following up with those that participated. For the winners they decided the line “Congrats, you survived the Boston Marathon!” would be a fun way of marketing to those that finished. Unfortunately they did not make the connection to what had happened in the past and sent the email through thinking nothing of it . They simply intended to have a quirky tag lion to get the attention of those scrolling through their email.
TWITTER’S RESPONSE
As one can imagine the media did not take kindly to Adidas’ message after such a horrible event occurred. Many people made jokes regarding the job of the person in charge of emails at adidas saying “you had ONE JOB!” and comments similar to that. However there was also a relentless group that did not see this as comedic even in the slightest. This group would continuously comment on how the company, Adidas, was insensitive and how their marketing team really dropped the ball. They would also see this act as partially greedy by the company (Adidas, 2017). It's easy to see how this banner on the emails are insensitive and despite it clearly being an accident and unintentional, the masses would not let Adidas live it down until they heard an apology and an explanation for their actions.
Tweets replying to the Adidas email
ADIDAS TAKES ACTION
Adidas had made many statements on different platforms and to different places, for instance, with TIME magazine their spokesperson had apologized for their “insensitive” statements (Caflas, 2017) and how there was “no thought given” to that subject line. Adidas was very quick to amend their actions after having been blasted on essentially all social media platforms for what they said. They would also apologize for tarnishing such a great event, the Boston marathon, with such an unthoughtful subject line. The people of Twitter would still spend the rest of the day tweeting about how they didn’t catch this and let it go to so many individuals. Adidas had no ill intent when sending this email and quickly made it known to the world once they received all the feedback that they did. After they got relentlessly made fun of and yelled at, a formal apology was the only option to deal with the situation.
CONCLUSION
After researching the whole event, Adidas had a lot of good strategies at combating their self made controversies. They knew that an apology was the way to go and it had to be a good one. They did not make any excuses as to what or why the subject line said what it said either. They took full responsibility so as not to receive anymore backlash which was a good move. They also brought their apology back to what a great event the Boston Marathon is. Adidas really did not want to focus on their mistake of a subject line but rather how they embarrassed themselves with the Boston Marathon. Lastly, they did not waste any time providing this apology to the public, they released the apology the same day the emails were sent (Flaherty, 2017). This was a good strategy coming into it, however many people did not accept it. The masses on social media thought it was too little for the weight of the subject. Adidas had been tagged in many posts and essentially everyone had seen all these posts a couple times before it seemed like Adidas did. They only officially released a two sentence apology and called it good. Many saw this and the email as unforgivable and continued to call for Adidas’ downfall. The whole strategy was still effective in the long run as Adidas still sponsors the Boston Marathon and the masses of social media seem to have let it go.
Adidas’ official apology
Works Cited
Calfas, Jennifer. “Adidas Apologizes for 'You Survived' Boston Marathon Email.” Time, Time, 18 Apr. 2017, time.com/4745066/adidas-boston-marathon-email/.
Flaherty, Bryan. “Adidas Apologizes for Email Congratulating Runners Who 'Survived' Boston Marathon.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 29 Apr. 2019, www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2017/04/18/adidas-apologizes-for-email-congratulating-runners-who-survived-boston-marathon/ .
“Boston Marathon Terror Attack Fast Facts.” CNN, Cable News Network, 4 Aug. 2020, www.cnn.com/2013/06/03/us/boston-marathon-terror-attack-fast-facts/index.html.
“Adidas Apologizes for Email Congratulating Runners on 'Surviving' Boston Marathon.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 18 Apr. 2017, www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2017/04/18/adidas-email-surviving-boston-marathon/100605882/.
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Crisis_Example_1_Cinnabon2.pdf
Cinnabon’s Carrie Fisher Controversy and How It Was Handled
Introduction
Companies are meant to be professional in their manner and are expected to be by the
general public–if not flawless, then significantly close. Because companies are run by humans,
there will often be mistakes in communication, execution and delivery. Oftentimes these
mistakes can be detrimental to a company or cause them enough harm to decrease their sales and
engagement. Being able to acknowledge faults and attempting to fix them is a key factor in
winning supporters back. We will see this being employed with Cinnabon’s controversial tweet
and how they were able to come back from it.
Controversy
Cinnabon’s controversy started at Carrie Fisher’s death, when they tweeted a witty
comment–a joke almost, about Fisher having the “best buns in the galaxy,” with a photo of their
very own cinnamon buns. Cinnabon, being a classic cinnamon bun and baked goods company
founded back in 1985, thought it was a great opportunity to be witty about advertising their own
products while finding a way to connect it to her
sudden death. This resulted in the tweet, seen to the
left.
Media Response and Backlash
Using a celebrity’s death to draw attention to
their own products caused media backlash as well as
an overload of negative tweets directed toward the
company. They were accused of being tone-deaf and (ironically) tasteless by many Carrie Fisher
and StarWars fans as well as their own customers. Jim Lokay, a reporter for Fox 5, tweeted a
screenshot of Cinnabon’s tweet with the caption, “And the award for ‘Most Tasteless Brand
Reaction To A Celebrity Death’ goes to @Cinnabon. #fox5dc” seen at https://twitter.com/
LokayFOX5/CinnabonBrandReaction. He then followed it up with another tweet stating, “The
artwork is cool. Commercializing death, not so much.” Others had more to say about the tweet
such as famous Youtuber Mark Dice, who tweeted “Since we're living in an idiocracy,
corporations use dead celebrity "tributes" as advertisements. Shame on you Cinnabon”
pic.twitter.com/pRnVIdWPMi. Some responded to Cinnabon with humor but also expressed
their dissatisfaction with the tweet, as
seen to the right.
https://twitter.com/Crawf33/status/
response.
Many responded in the way that
they did because it appeared that the
company was attempting to capitalize
off of Fisher’s death, a legendary and
beloved actress that shaped generations
of childhoods.
Realizing their mistake due to the backlash, Cinnabon quickly deleted the tweet and
issued an apology that said, “Our deleted tweet was genuinely meant as a tribute, but we
shouldn’t have posted it. We are truly sorry.” https://twitter.com/Cinnabon/status/apology. Some
did not accept the apology while others tweeted to the brand and about the controversy, saying
that Fisher would’ve actually enjoyed the joke if she were still here: https://twitter.com/
calvinstowell/status/carriefisher.
Another tweet in a direct response to Cinnabon’s apology by Castle Early, says, “SHE would
have thought it was funny. #CarrieFisher” with 207 likes and had replies from people who
agreed. As seen in this thread: https://twitter.com/Cinnabon/status/apologythread.
Although there was backlash from many supporters, on the other side of the spectrum, there
were some that found it amusing and witty. There are even mixed reviews as seen in the photo
below, both positive and negative.
Recovery
Despite the controversy, Cinnabon was able to bounce back without the mishap lingering
for too long. This was due to their sincere apology and regret for posting about her death in a
way that seemed selfish. They also deleted the tweet and did not mention it or anything close to
the topic afterward. Eventually, people moved on from the controversy and it seemed that lessons
were learned for all involved. Hootsuite.com says that companies who experience issues or
miscommunications with customers should “correct mistakes…listen to what people say on your
social media account…Correct it, let the person know what you did, and explain why.” That is
exactly what Cinnabon did as they issued their apology. They corrected their actions by deleting
the tweet, let their supporters and StarWars fans know what (in this case why) they did what they
did, and then stated their final apology.
Conclusion
Companies sometimes make mistakes. Depending on the degree of the mistake and how
it is handled, companies can win back their customers, supporters and followers. In this case,
Cinnabon was able to move forward from a controversial tweet that was viewed as attempting to
draw attention to their own products by using a celebrity death. Luckily for them, there were still
people who found their tweets amusing and even claimed that Carrie Fisher herself would have
enjoyed them. However, this did not erase the fact that there was widespread dissatisfaction
regarding the tweet. In order to fix the problem, Cinnabon deleted their tweet, addressed the
topic head-on, and sincerely apologized. Although it is unfortunate for any company to have to
face, experiences with controversies from time to time help companies evolve, grow and most
importantly, pay attention to the content that is posted.
References
Social media was filled Tuesday with heartfelt tributes to the actress who created the Star Wars
heroine Princess Leia. There were videos. (n.d.). Cinnabon apologizes for tasteless Carrie
Fisher tweet. Retrieved September 29, 2020, from https://money.cnn.com/2016/12/28/
news/companies/cinnabon-carrie-fisher-apology/
How to Deal With Social Media Trolls:. (2019, February 28). Retrieved September 29, 2020,
from https://blog.hootsuite.com/how-to-deal-with-trolls-on-social-media/
Gibbs, A. (2016, December 29). Cinnabon deletes and apologizes for its Carrie Fisher tribute
after Twitter backlash. Retrieved September 29, 2020, from https://www.cnbc.com/
2016/12/28/cinnabon-deletes-and-apologizes-for-its-carrie-fisher-tribute-after-twitter-
backlash.html
Griffith, E. (2018, April 17). 19 Massive Corporate Social Media Horror Stories. Retrieved
September 29, 2020, from https://www.pcmag.com/news/19-massive-corporate-social-
media-horror-stories