When the New York Times broke a story about retailer H&M destroying and discarding large amounts of unsold clothing, the organization refused to comment. Their error in crisis management was picked up by astute Tweeters and suddenly H&M found itself in trouble, as this quote from a Technorati blog explains:
Tweets lashed out at H&M for what people saw as gross lack of charity in not donating the items. Others keyed in on the environmental faux pas of throwing useable clothes in the garbage. And almost all marvelled at how the retailer could be so callous to the obvious financial hardships people faced in the current economy. It became a firestorm.
When caught red handed doing something wrong, whether ethically or legally, it’s much more effective to respond and make amends. It’s a rare case where an effective crisis response involves “no comment.”
The BCM Blogging Team
https://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/