It feels like a while since I’ve seen something really go viral. The noise surrounding the new presidency in the States has given satirists and meme-makers plenty of material to work with, but just recently two events happened within days of each other: First Pepsi released its big new campaign, and then United Airlines forcibly dragged (or “re-accommodated”) a paying passenger off a flight.
Overwhelming reactions to both prove that the consumer is by no means toothless – and that if one thing can unite the internet, it’s an excise to lash out at major corporations for handling people – and situations – badly.
Let’s look at them in turn.
Pepsi’s big fizzle
Pepsi Cola had one of those ideas that must have seemed great on paper, but badly missed the mark when it comes to reality. Their campaign was a short film that plays on the powerful imagery of women’s marches, Black Lives Matter, and other recent non-violent protests.
The quick pitch likely looked something like this: Multi-ethnic, international youth embarks on a peaceful march to a soundtrack by Ziggy Marley. Lots of music, co-operation, laughter, and Pepsi in cans and glass bottles. Kendall Jenner is on a fashion shoot nearby and joins in. She takes off her wig (!) and picks up a cold Pepsi from a nearby bucket, high-fiving and fist-bumping millennials as she walks up to the line of police who are blocking their way. Kendall gives the can to a cute young copper, who can’t resist his thirst for unity and pops it open. Glug glug glug. Refreshing peaceful taste! This iconic moment is caught by a young female photographer wearing a head scarf. Photo. Of. The. Millennial. Everyone celebrates together.
Now, quite apart from the fact that anyone going anywhere near police lines with glass bottles and drinks cans is probably going to be leapt on by a SWAT team for concealing a weapon, this internet short could not have gone over much worse. The difference between this advert and images of the real thing is stark.
A wave of criticism put Pepsi on the rack for trivializing serious protest, for glossing over police brutality, and ultimately just for getting it badly wrong. But the reaction wasn’t confined to words. Dr Pepper-spray cop made a reappearance of course, but also Saturday Night Live proposed an alternate ending and Twitter users had a field day.
To its credit, Pepsi handled the situation swiftly and with humility. It pulled the ad and apologized, saying in a statement: “Pepsi was trying to project a global message of unity, peace and understanding. Clearly, we missed the mark and apologize. We did not intend to make light of any serious issue. We are pulling the content and halting any further rollout.”
It was too late to avoid widespread mockery for co-opting a cause, but it appears to me that Pepsi had a lucky escape – it was bad, is still unfolding, and will be used in the future as an example of what not to do, but it could have been a lot worse. Partly because management did the sensible thing in swallowing the loss, taking a deep breath, and stepping back quickly.
But partly also because United Airlines made a far bigger splash just a few days later, and the internet had something even more sensational to focus on.
United Airlines: From dragging a customer to being dragged on social
To be clear, here’s a quick recap of what is reported as having happened at the time of writing: On Sunday April 9, passengers began boarding United Airlines flight 3411 from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport to Louisville, Kentucky. United announced the flight was overbooked and wanted volunteers to give up their seats so United employees could travel. Flight attendants looked for volunteers and offered vouchers, but no one came forward. So the United manager got on the plane and said passengers would be chosen at random.
One of these passengers, Dr. David Dao, refused to go. The next flight wasn’t until the following afternoon and he said he had patients to see.
Three Chicago Department of Aviation officers violently dragged him off the plane. In the process he was injured and many other passengers filmed it – they also filmed him running back onto the plane shortly after, agitated, disheveled, and confused with blood on his face.
Internet channels and commentators were immediately ablaze, but this time the way the company handled it did not go down so well. The airline’s initial response was a poorly-phrased statement from CEO Oscar Munoz in which he apologized “for having to re-accommodate these passengers.”
Unsurprisingly, the idea of re-accommodation as a euphemism for literally dragging people off a plane was latched on to by social media.
This was followed by an internal memo from him that was quickly leaked to the press. Again Munoz abdicated responsibility and commended his staff, saying Dr Dao “raised his voice” when being repeatedly told to leave the plane, that when talking to him “in order to gain his compliance” he became “disruptive and belligerent” and that the airline’s agents had “no choice” but to summon security, and that he “continued to resist” as they physically removed him from the flight.
But by now the video was already circulating, and opinion very firmly on the side of Dr. Dao. Within 48 hours of the incident there had been 330 million views of #UnitedForcesPassengerOffPlane posts on Sina Weibo (one of mainland China’s biggest sites), where it was seen as racial persecution of an ethnic Chinese. Upset then spread to Vietnam when it turned out Dr Dao was in fact born there.
The whole thing is a PR disaster. And United is now in the unenviable position of being the face of violent capitalism, for commoditizing its own customers and abusing its position. CEO Munoz has made another apology in which he actually admits fault, but he missed his window. For the world wide web, it’s too little, too late.
United’s new hashtag campaign, #UnitedJourney, has, of course, been co-opted by Twitter users. Instead of posting their favorite travel photos as the company had planned, they have come up with all sorts of variations on United’s knockout service and priority boarding. Then there’s #UnitedAirlinesMottos and myriad variations on the theme. Even jiu-jitsu royalty the Gracie brothers have got in on the action, quickly turning around a video of dragging defences, with different moves for business class and economy passengers.
The rights and wrongs of overbooking (which is a standard practice in aviation) are one thing – and better covered elsewhere. But it’s important to note that customers do not have a happy history with United, which has the highest overbooking rate of all large airlines.
And the result? United Airlines’ share price took an immediate, heavy hit. Its CEO has been called on to resign. Another former passenger – this one from first class – has come forward saying how he was threatened with handcuffs if he wouldn’t downgrade or leave the flight to make way for a higher-priority traveller.
There’s not a social network that doesn’t have pages and pages of memes, videos and more, all pointing the finger at United Airlines, and there’s no sign of it slowing just yet.
Class is continually in session
So what’s the big lesson? Well, it’s simple.
Companies need to listen and they need to be able to react with positivity and confidence first. Owning a blunder is the quickest and surest way to avoid media shaming. We’d all do well to remember that there is an immediacy to any mistake – think how many people have phones that record video – and that brands are held accountable for the way they treat consumers. If you needed proof, Pepsi and United’s experiences over the last week should be all you need.
I’ve had my own run-ins with airlines – you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who hasn’t got a horror story. Sometimes it’s just the luck of the draw and things get messed up. What is disappointing is that when they did overbook, they didn’t handle it better. Just holding their hands up and promising an immediate investigation would have helped.
In terms of opportunity for delivering great experiences, the travel sector is one of the most exciting. In many ways airlines have all the cards – they have real world interaction with travelers at landmark points in their life, they have tons of data and insights for personalized touch points, they meet customers in predictable ways both online and face to face – and when they get it right it’s a wonderful journey for the customer, in all senses.
But when it goes as badly wrong as this…there’s not much anyone else can do except watch and learn.
