Why bad PR is, well, bad

It’s interesting to see how quickly businesses, both international and domestic, can find themselves on the wrong side of bad PR. The problem is, international companies can find themselves on the wrong side of someone else’s bad PR in a sort of international guilt by association. We’ve seen it numerous times here in the US, particularly with countries such as France (remember “Freedom Fries?”).

This past summer’s victim was China, whose manufacturers suffered at the hands of a few (very) unfavorable news stories about unsafe toys. The story was an important one, outlining a number of serious safety issues with Chinese-manufactured toys sold in the US. Unfortunately, the official response sounded a whole lot like stonewalling, which only made the situation worse, casting a shadow on Chinese manufacturing as a whole. This story from Common Sense PR offers an interesting summary of some of the good and bad responses to this crisis, and shows how damaging guilt by association can be.