Astronomer’s Coldplaygate and American Eagle’s Genegate saw fake apologies go viral before either business could have their say. Comms strategist Andy Barr dissects how brands should now respond to supposed scandals.
“Rising above” presents a very credible risk to brands embroiled in fake-troversy. Just take for example the fake statements circulated on behalf of Astronomer or its CEO after he was caught embroiled with a colleague on kisscam, or American Eagle adding more fuel to the fire on the backlash around its Sydney Sweeney campaign.
After nearly 30 years of working in crisis communications for global brands that you will have all heard of, I feel qualified to let the cat out of the bag that managing a crisis is pretty formulaic.
There are nuances, but the general gist is first to identify if there really is a crisis.
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Ignore and rise above if it isn’t, and if it is, apologize where you are legally able to do so.
If that doesn’t stem the baying masses, then announce a third-party investigation of your wrongdoing, that will take a while.
If the pitchforks are still being readied, announce the findings of the external investigation and maybe sack a member of the C-Suite (the sales director is the most common receiver of the Spanish Archer (El-Bow)).
Hey presto, wait a few weeks and turn the pro-active marketing back on to see if the muggles have calmed TF down.
There is clearly much more to it, but this is a summary of the crises I have handled. A little while ago, I realized that this advice needed to change.
At the very start of being brought in to assess a crisis, I would often, quite huffily and with huge confidence, announce that this was not really a crisis and that they should, in fact, say nothing. I would back this up with a tale of a far worse situation I had worked on, and the corporate involved would give out a huge sigh of relief as I would slide the invoice over the desk before exiting the meeting.
Saying nothing, even if you have done nothing wrong, is no longer a real option.
Astronomer was not in a crisis of any kind, and those who say otherwise are those god-awful “crisis communications theory” experts who have clearly never worked at the danger end of a real-life company-merde-hitting-the-fan moment. American Eagle is currently embroiled in a spot of fake-troversy marketing that may or may not backfire, but it is nowhere near a full-on crisis.
So what represents a real-life crisis?
When I worked for the 5th (1-4th is boring) largest listed company in the world at the time, the CEO told me the key indicator of a crisis was anything that triggered a share price drop of 10% or more in a single day. That’s the real table stakes. In my crisis communications career, we were always told to hold out for as long as possible before reacting, but this is no longer the case.
The internet and its japesters have long grown tired of just trying to give government-owned McBoats McStupid names.
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They have moved on to damaging companies with the quick turnaround of what looks genuine, but turn out to be fake and comedy, statements. They even come from believable sources (most commonly a hastily created TwitteringX account backfilled with content from an AI bot).
Why?
Because they can, and most importantly in their eyes, get their nine seconds of fame via a brand in a tricky situation.
Brands now need to assess the reality of a crisis on a far faster timescale and react accordingly. If they are not in a real crisis, then they should at least acknowledge this.
Despite working in crisis comms and having such a dull personality that I have a hugely thriving vegetable patch in my garden, you will be surprised to hear that I am actually a huge advocate of trying to use humor in a statement. To be clear, only when it is in relation to a muggle/media furore that doesn’t actually warrant a response.
Lynx, the creators of the deodorants responsible for huge swathes of teens nearly gassing themselves since 1983, was a brand that made me notice how humor can defuse a media storm falsely labeled as a crisis. When its hugely popular Africa range was referenced in a 2013 Channel 4 documentary on Dogging (don’t Google it without your trusty VPN activated), the brand faced a social media headache that could have developed into a larger media issue.
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It lent into it and issued a comedy response on Twitter, as was, and the world laughed and moved on.
Astronomer has done this too with their Paltrow follow-up to the Coldplay drama.
However, it should have put something out straight away and far earlier than it did, and yes, I do know that it issued a rather bland statement before the Paltrow response. Little good did that do after that convincing fake statement had already done the rounds.
As for American Eagle, this is an entirely different case. A bunch of trendy advertising types will have sold the concept to the “suits” and reinforced the “fake-troversy” element as a plus point. They have left too long a gap between the advert going live, the muggles kicking off, and the media ripping into them for the brand to in any way try to claim that this was all part of the plan.
Brands in a moment that is neither a crisis nor a positive, let’s call it a situation, need to get their narrative out fast and first. The simple alternative is to find and employ the director from HMV who famously asked “how do we turn off the Twitter” during their crisis, and seeing if the same is possible for the entire internet. I am sure it is.
Andy Barr is a PR and digital communications expert with more than 25 years’ experience in communications, Barr has led multi-channel campaigns for major brands such as AXA, Unilever, First Group, Whitbread, Ikea, Superdry, Water Aid, Confused.com. He is frequently featured as a media commentator on the BBC, ITV, Sky News, and Channel 5. Since November 2024, he has served as Senior Communications Manager at Season One Communications in the UK.
