Sometimes the right crisis response is to delete
Retailer Lowe’s is in the midst of a social media breakdown, as thousands of racist comments flood a post on their Facebook page explaining why it’s pulled advertising from the TLC show, “All American Muslim.”
Media across the country caught wind of the situation, resulting in even more reputation management troubles for the company, as you can see in this quote, from an AdWeek article by Ben Popken:
“If Lowe’s was concerned about spreading hate speech, you would think that they would filter and delete the worst [comments],” says Ibrahim Hooper, communications director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). “It’s hard to tell if leaving them up is intentional or not.” CAIR sent Lowe’s CEO Robert Niblock a letter on Monday requesting a meeting to discuss the pulling of ads from the TLC show but has received no response so far. Late Tuesday, CAIR plans to release a statement condemning Lowe’s for allowing the bigoted speech to remain on its Facebook wall.
Edit: Lowe’s finally wiped the post on Wednesday, after it had stood for five days and gathered 22,000+ comments.
While we typically discourage “Delete Button Crisis Management,” when things go beyond passionate discussion and turn into defamation and outright hatred, it’s time to pull the trigger.
The BCM Blogging Team
https://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/