Can you imagine donating $100,000 to charity and having it turn into BAD publicity?
But that's exactly what happened Yellow Tail USA and their public relations team after the company donated $100K to the Humane Society in order to fund the adoption of kitties and puppies. Big mistake. The Humane Society has enemies -- American farmers and ranchers -- and they're up in arms about the Australian company's attempt to push its "tails for tails" feel-good PR campaign. People in the agriculture community are railing against the company on Twitter, tagging comments with
#yellowfail and saying things like
@shaunhaney: Off to buy some wine for our super bowl party. Guess which brand I won't be buying. #yellowtail
and @FarmerHaley: I used to like it, but alas, no more yellow tail 4 me RT @iam_me: #sidebar: remind me 2 NEVER buy yellow tail wine ever ...
And posting videos like
this one and creating Facebook pages like this:
http://www.facebook.com/yellowfail.
What a nightmare. Here's my advice, though -- play some conservative defense. A survey of the internets shows that this scary public relations crisis is still contained. It's a small community that has any problem with the Humane Society. The message, "Yellow Tail donates lots of money to the Humane Society to rescue cute kitties" is much easier than the convoluted story about lobbyists and agricultural policy that the opponents are pushing. My advice would be, ignore the haters. The YouTube video has only 500 or so views. Deal with it if and only after it becomes viral -- don't help push it to the mainstream by responding.
The real lesson, though, is do your research on charities in foreign markets before you decide to donate to them.
Always do your research.
Can you imagine donating $100,000 to charity and having it turn into BAD publicity?
But that's exactly what happened Yellow Tail USA and their public relations team after the company donated $100K to the Humane Society in order to fund the adoption of kitties and puppies. Big mistake. The Humane Society has enemies -- American farmers and ranchers -- and they're up in arms about the Australian company's attempt to push its "tails for tails" feel-good PR campaign. People in the agriculture community are railing against the company on Twitter, tagging comments with #yellowfail and saying things like
