How do you respond effectively to a negative video leak?
April 11th, 2008 by Tim Greenhalgh
I was thinking about PR use of video this week in a positive mood when the Wal-mart internal video story broke.
At first, it seemed like a trivial side-story to the Us economic meltdown, and one that would die away pretty quickly along with the muffled laughter from the consumer giant’s competitors.
But it seems to have a lot of life in it yet as the company that released selective clips of internal Wal-mart events refuses to back away from offering the entire 30-year catalogue to anyone who wants to pay. Clips are out on YouTube and seeded on many key sites, including the pressure group site Walmart Watch .
How would a PR2.0 agency respond to the story, spreading visually across the web.
I may have missed something but the Wal-Mart site and its blogs make no reference to the story and there has been limited comment from the company on business TV and to press agencies.
But the story is damaging and adding weight to the campaigners’ arguments against the company and its practices.
So, the questions I’m wrestling with are: how do you respond effectively to a negative video leak? Do you release counter-footage, shoot new distractive video that entertains and shows you in a more positive light? Do you have to respond in a visual way at all or go for non-contextual, traditional response.
Do you just ignore it and hope it goes away?
It’d be good to hear what you think.
