Scary PR Nightmares for this Spooky Season

By: Yelaine Aguilar

Halloween is here, and with costumes and candy comes the telling of classic spooky stories. In public relations, there have also been a few cases where situations have turned scary for companies and their reputations. The Try Guys, Southwest and Aldi’s battle with Marks & Spencer stand out as hair-raising cases. In the spirit of Halloween, here is an account of those three memorable PR nightmares that live on and how companies dug – or tried to dig – themselves out of their graves.

The Try Guys Become a Try-fecta

Via: YouTube

The Try Guys – Eugune Lee Yang, Keith Habersberger, Zach Kornfield and Ned Fulmer – are a group of four best friends and YouTube video producers. In September 2022, controversy called their company and friendship into question.

Wait, but who are The Try Guys?

The Try Guys first rose to fame through their series on BuzzfeedVideo. Their name is quite literal: they made comedic videos of themselves trying new things, from following makeup tutorials to swimming with sharks. They left Buzzfeed in 2018 and started their own production company, 2 Try. From there, they launched their own YouTube channel where they continued to try anything and everything.

So, what happened?

In The Try Guys’ YouTube videos, each member had distinct traits that set their online personas apart. Viewers and commenters picked up on this, too. Eugene was the edgy one, Keith was the goofy one, Zach was the sweet one and Ned was “the one who loved his wife.”

Via: YouTube

So when Ned was caught cheating on his wife with a coworker, shown in leaked photos on Reddit, viewers and fans felt deceived. In the replies to an X (formerly known as Twitter) post of Ned admitting his “consensual workplace relationship,” one user commented, “The way you built off your career on loving your wife so much only for your career to end because you cheated on her is quite ironic isn’t it?” Yikes.

How did the Guys respond?

The Try Guys knew they had to respond quickly. “We were always planning on a public statement…but in light of rapidly accelerating speculation, we knew we couldn’t wait any longer,” Eugene explained in their five-minute video titled “what happened.'' This video was released on Oct. 3, 2022, eight days after Ned confirmed the allegations on Twitter.

In the video, Keith, Zach and Eugene stated the facts without hiding they were all “deeply saddened.”

“Ned Fulmer is no longer working with The Try Guys,” Zach opened the video.

His serious tone separated itself from the rest of The Try Guy videos. While they admitted there were details they couldn’t disclose because of legal reasons, the trio took a definite stance against Ned’s actions.

“We were acutely aware just how contrary this was to the values of the company we’ve built and everyone who works here,” Eugene said.

The Try Guys then briefly recapped what Ned’s actions were and what steps they were taking with HR and PR to diffuse the situation. They also explained they planned to remove Ned from past and future content and reminded viewers to approach the situation with empathy.

Immediately, commenters sided with Keith, Zach and Eugene.

“I've never seen such a genuine apology video and it's over something they didn’t even do,” one commenter said. “I love the way Zach opens immediately saying that Ned has been removed, instead of putting off saying that till the end.”

The Try Guys’ transparency, with both the details they could give and their authenticity, spoke for itself.

But the team didn’t stop there. Three days later, The Try Guys made a one-hour podcast titled “okay, let’s talk about it,” where they explained the situation in-depth.

On top of that, there was a silver lining of humor in the difficulty of editing Ned out of past and future videos. In their trying to make Pop-Tarts without a recipe video, Ned was edited out of the booth he was supposed to have next to Keith and an elephant was placed on top of him as an indirect reference to the “elephant in the room.”

Via: YouTube

Overall, viewers recognized The Try Guys’ effort and their management of the crisis resulted in positive publicity for The Try Guys as mature, capable and strong for their sincere apology video and willingness to continue pushing out quality content.

What was Alpha’s take on 2Try’s response?

Alpha members created a thread on X relating the Try Guys’ response to the Page Principles.

Southwest’s Flurry of Winter Flight Cancellations

Via: NPR

Southwest Airlines left its customers stranded when it canceled approximately 16,700 flights as a result of a major winter storm last December.

Southwest canceled more flights than other major airline carriers. In December, the total cancellation rate for U.S. airlines was 5.4%. For Southwest Airlines, this number was almost three times larger at 14.6%. On Dec. 26, 2022, the airline called off 300 flights in the span of a half-hour.

Southwest passengers were frustrated and looked to Southwest's representatives and the company at-large to air out their grievances. To add insult to injury, the website was not operational through part of the company’s crisis.

Customers also experienced long wait times to reach representatives over the phone. One passenger waited for 10 hours on the phone with Southwest, reported CNN.

In the direct aftermath of the storm, Southwest gave few updates and rejected interview requests. Finally, on Dec. 27, five days after the storm hit, Southwest posted an apology video on X.

In the video, the CEO called Southwest’s network highly complex and explained there had been “challenges” in the flight schedule.

However, the company still came under fire from passengers, media outlets and government officials. The video didn’t explain why Southwest had to cancel more flights than other airlines or why the company was taking so long to recover. On top of that, passengers became increasingly discontent and demanded reimbursements.

Via: X

So, what could they do?

The company’s delayed response, coupled with a lack of customer service, resulted in a damage control effort to recover from an estimated $825 million dollars in lost revenue from its cancellations and its reputation.

In an email update to customers, Southwest’s CEO admitted that its systems were outdated. According to Michael Santoro, a Southwest captain and vice president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, its 23-year-old flight management system is a “tech problem here at Southwest.”

To avoid future crises, the company rolled out major initiatives. It crafted a detailed action plan describing its goals, including technology upgrade objectives and enhanced communication. It also processed passenger refund requests including any meals, housing and other accommodations paid for as a result of the flight cancellations.

Southwest still wasn’t let off easy. The U.S. Transportation Department is investigating Southwest for scheduling too many flights. The agency said it will hold Southwest accountable if it does not follow federal rules for reimbursing customers what they are owed.The airline said it would fully comply with the investigation, promising to “[focus] on learning from this event.”

Southwest hopes its transparency and willingness to improve (even if it came from a lot of consumer and government pressure) will help it earn backconsumer confidence.

Aldi’s Cuthbert the Caterpillar (left) via: Brands Untapped and M&S’ Colin the Caterpillar (right) via: Cosmopolitan

Cake Wars: Aldi and M&S Feud over Caterpillar Cakes

Marks and Spencer (M&S), a major British supermarket and proud owner of Colin the Caterpillar, started a cake war with Aldi — literally. M&S filed a lawsuit against Aldi when it released an eerily similar cake, Cuthbert the Caterpillar.

Colin the Caterpillar, released by M&S in the 90s, grew in popularity for its distinct branding and product design. Colin has that “characteristic cheeky grin,” explained Natalie Tate, food product developer at M&S.

Colin has also been a major symbol for the M&S partnership with cancer charity Macmillan. The supermarket chain raised £23 million supporting Macmillan from 2009 to 2022, reported The Bolton News.

Due to Colin’s distinct look and feel, M&S sued Aldi for copyright infringement of intellectual property in April 2021. It wanted Aldi to remove the product and not sell anything similar in the future.

M&S spokespeople called the lawsuit a "targeted approach to protect our brand assets" and an action to “defend our intellectual property and protect our suppliers.'' During the legal battle, Aldi took to X to humorously diffuse the situation, tweeting out, “Cuthbert has been found GUILTY… of being delicious. #FreeCuthbert.”

Cuthbert supporters responded to the movement by tweeting and commenting in Aldi’s favor, and #FreeCuthbert spread across social media.

Via: X

Via: Mumsnet

M&S did not stay silent and responded to Aldi for its perceived copyright infringement via X. While a more serious legal battle was going on, the two brands were able to make light of the situation and Aldi actually recieved more positive publicity than M&S from the incident.

In November 2021, the two brands reached an agreement. The agreement was confidential, according to the court order, but it resulted in Aldi pulling Cuthbert off store shelves and reintroducing Cuthbert with a snazzy bowtie.

Aldi’s Cuthbert the Caterpillar before lawsuit (left) via: Brands Untapped and Aldi’s Cuthbert the Caterpillar after lawsuit (right) via: Manchester Evening News

These three PR cases were all, at some point, scary for the companies involved. From breaking silence and clearing the rumors, to staying silent and then coming out with new initiatives, to immediately going on a #FreeCuthbert tweet spree, each brand had its own way of fighting its public nightmare.