Cover-ups Don’t Fly August 4, 2007
Posted by dixonpaul in Crisis Communications, Media Talk, PR in the UK.add a comment
‘The world’s favourite airline’ is experiencing a turbulent week.
First it was announced that BA is now the worst performing of all Europe’s major airlines, then a few days later it was hit with a £270 million fine for price fixing with Virgin. And today – just when they thought the nosedive was over and a spin had been averted – the Times (London) reports that BA attempted to conceal how many bags it was losing after discovering that it had come bottom of an industry league table. BA obviously doesn’t like to spin in the air – or with the media on the ground it seems.
BA, keeping its customers in the dark
Embarrassed by the findings, BA contacted the air passenger watchdog, the Association of European Airlines (AEA), and ordered it not to release the results of its quarterly survey of baggage delays and punctuality. In other words: stop the usual practice of issuing a press release to announce survey results. But that wasn’t enough for BA. They also wanted the figures to be placed on an obscure part of the AEA website, where they would be difficult to find. The AEA were outraged and neither of these requests got off the ground. (more…)
Hu’s better suited to handling a flood crisis? July 26, 2007
Posted by dixonpaul in Crisis Communications, Media Talk, PR in the PRC, PR in the UK.add a comment
As I waded through my regular news portals covering the latest flood reports from the UK – and China – it was interesting to see how the respective leaders from both countries are getting their feet wet and supporting the relief efforts. Even more interesting is their attire.
First there is Gordon Brown – whether it’s riding the storm in PMQ’s;
Serving aces past 13 year-old secondary school students;
Or indeed visiting flooded homes in Gloucestershire;
the customary tailored dark suit, white shirt and polished black shoes seems to be the only way for Gordon to step outside onto Downing Street’s July puddles (to give him some credit, a pink tie was once bravely worn as opposed to his favoured blue). A search on Google images reveals just two occasions when he was clad in anything else: a picture with his wife, Sarah, and their newly born daughter; and a visit to British troops serving in Iraq – I assume too hot even for his all-purpose-all-weather suit in the midday desert heat. A white shirt, top-button open, was his attire on both those occasions by the way. (more…)
