The PR Breakdown with Molly McPherson 198: Can You Tell Me How to Get (Out of a Crisis) Sesame Place
Examining the recent incident at Sesame Place in Philadelphia. In a video that went viral, a performer dressed as the beloved Sesame Street character Rosita appears to snub two Black children after high-fiving other visitors to the park.
In this episode, we discuss what happened, how the park responded, why the initial response didn't work, and why they needed a second response to clean it up. We break down Sesame Place’s first official response and explain exactly what was wrong with it and what was missing from it, before learning about the Indestructible PR framework for writing an ideal response.
Key Points From This Episode:
• What happens in the video and why it went viral.
• Speculation as to who wrote this statement and what it tells us about their thinking.
• What was wrong with the statement, starting with strike one: they only responded on
Instagram.
• Why you should always consider what reasonable people will think.
• How the element of care was missing from this response.
• Why it’s so important to show care to the victims in the first 45 minutes.
• Why owning it is always step number one.
• Why you want to use the word “apologize” in a formal statement.
• The Indestructible PR tip for the day: If you have a victim that is activist-minded, never
dismiss them.
• How you can find more tips in Molly’s new book Indestructible: Reclaim Control and Respond with Confidence in a Media Crisis.
Tweetables:
“The first statement that was written was not a great statement. I don’t want to be the grammar police on this one but if there’s ever a time to get your writing right, this is the time.” — @MollyMcPherson[0:08:27]
“If you don’t show, in the first 45 minutes, some commitment to care — that you care about the victim, what happened to them, and other people like them — you’re going to lose the crisis. And then in six hours, you’ve lost control of the crisis, you’ve lost the narrative of your own crisis
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