In the past few hours, videos of several Domino’s employees engaging in disgusting behavior (see: 1 and 2) have circulated through blogs and social media platforms, causing quite an uproar and brand damage to one of the nation’s leading pizza chains.

This is the changing face of PR in the era of social media. While the business of public relations is fast moving and days are unpredictable, social media comes equipped with videos (with brand images connected) and spreads faster than ever before.  Faster than daily newspapers can come out or TV programs can run updates.  Dangerous and scary.

Domino’s, to their credit, responded quickly and with well-delivered wording:  “The ‘challenge’ that comes with the freedom of the internet is that any idiot with a camera and an internet link can do stuff like this – and ruin the reputation of a brand that’s nearly 50 years old, and the reputations of 125,000 hard-working men and women across the nation and in 60 countries around the world.”

While there have always been rumors, and the advent of the Internet created sites to exchange information, today with video and social media, information can spread more quickly than ever before.  Luckily for them, Domino’s caught this very quickly, but they still could not stop brand damage from being done.

In the age of instant communication, media, crisis PR and social monitoring is more vital than ever.   This story is still being told.

Ronn Torossian

5WPR

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 14th, 2009 at 2:07 pm and is filed under CRISIS PR. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.