Think Before You Publish

It seems these days more and more companies and organizations are having to issue public apologies for something offensive they've published in print.  Today alone I have read two headlines online where public apologies were made.

One was from the shoe company Reebok where they printed an offensive ad and had them circulating in Germany.  The ad simply stated "Cheat on your girlfriend, not on your workout."  Now, I can see Reebok trying to come up with something hip or funny for their market to remember.  After all, the point of advertising is standing out.  However, this is definitely the wrong way to do it.  Of course, they pulled the ad after they received complaints about it being disrespectful towards women.

To be honest, I kind of laughed to myself after I saw the ad, but that's because I have an odd sense of humor.  And never, if working for a company as an advertiser, big or small, would I ever allow something like that to be published.  It's bad PR.  Sure it will get people talking, but most of it won't be in favor of the company.

Another story I read today was about an elementary school, of all places, who sent out a letter to their students' parents about studying Black History and having their students dress in African American attire.  The offensive part in the letter stated "...students could wear animal print clothing or shirts with animals native to Africa..."  Again, after word got out that this letter was printed and sent out to the parents, it created a negative impact and the school started receiving complaints.

The school's Chief Communication Officer apologized for the letter and had said, "We are reminding all of our principals to be very sensitive in word choices when communicating with parents concerning different ethnic groups and cultures that make up our world."  While that's all fine, what I think the real lesson here should be to demonstrate good publishing tactics, no matter how big your business or organization is.

I've worked in the corporate world going on 10 years now (wow, I can't believe it's already been that long).  My first job was at a big name home security company.  Working for this company taught me many things, including what should and shouldn't be used in business communications.  Any letter that was sent to a customer, any advertisement that was made for publishing had to be approved by an executive.  And this was true with any corporate company I've worked for (my number is 3).

I'm sure the same applies with Reebok and the North Carolina elementary school that have had to issue these public apologies for their bad taste, or at least I would like to think the same would apply.  So why would they let this kind of communication filter out for the public?  I would like to think that a competent executive would know where the line stands when it comes to offending a gender, race, or the public in general.

I'm not saying that everything sent out to the public from a company or organization has to be sugar coated.  I'm just saying that it should be decent.  Maybe these executives should take a refresher course on how to make their external communications public friendly again.