With 2019 officially in the books, we can all now look back and engage in one of our favorite collective pastimes: Declaring winners and losers. In the realm of public relations, the losers in 2019 are numerous, but three particularly stand out. Here’s our Top 3 Biggest PR Fails of 2019:
The Best A Man Can Be…?
We’ll start with an ad campaign that kicked off the year — and promptly ticked off a big percentage of the brand’s target audience through its “toxic” perspective. We’re talking, of course, about Gillette’s infamous “toxic masculinity” campaign that launched in January with this remarkably ill-advised, pedantically “woke” ad:
“Boys will be boys”? Isn’t it time we stopped excusing bad behavior? Re-think and take action by joining us at https://t.co/giHuGDEvlT. #TheBestMenCanBe pic.twitter.com/hhBL1XjFVo
— Gillette (@Gillette) January 14, 2019
The #MeToo movement, Gillette tells us, is the moment when our alleged “toxic masculinity” culture “finally changed.”
“There will be no going back because we — we believe in the best in men,” the narrator states. “To say the right thing, to act the right way. Some already are — in ways big and small. But some is not enough because the boys watching today will become the men of tomorrow.” What follows is a series of stereotypical and insulting portrayals of male behavior.
Predictably, the ad resulted in instant blowback from now-former consumers disavowing and, at times, literally trashing the brand. Over the next few months, Gillette’s parent company, Procter & Gamble, watched in alarm as the company’s sales continued to drop amid the fallout and increased competition. As The Daily Wire reported in August, “despite positive performance overall for Procter & Gamble Co., who enjoyed better than expected profits last quarter, the company ended up reporting a net loss of over $5 billion. The reason: Gillette’s nosedive.”
“Procter & Gamble Co’s (PG.N) quarterly revenue and adjusted profit beat Wall Street expectations on Tuesday, sending shares to a record-high even as the world’s No.1 personal goods company took an $8 billion charge on its Gillette shaving business,” Reuters reported in late July. Procter & Gamble “reported a net loss of about $5.24 billion, or $2.12 per share, for the quarter ended June 30, due to an $8 billion non-cash writedown of Gillette,” the news agency explained.
Gillette has given a number of explanations for its heavy losses, including currency fluctuations and “more competition over the past three years and a shrinking market for blades and razors as consumers in developed markets shave less frequently.” The razor industry, Reuters noted, has declined by 11% over the last 5 years. But critics say Gillette is leaving out a key factor: alienating a large percentage of its potential consumer base.
A few weeks after reporting the massive write-off, Gillette revealed that it was officially “shifting the spotlight” from lecturing would-be consumers about social issues to celebrating “local heroes.”
The NBA Bows To Communist China
In what is arguably the worst of all the PR fails of a major entity in 2019, the NBA’s response to threats from China’s oppressive communist government after a team executive simply expressed support for pro-democracy, pro-freedom Hong Kong protesters was simply disastrous — particularly for a league that typically presents itself as the most progressive of the big sports leagues.
The controversy and ensuing PR nightmare all began with an innocuous tweet by Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey. “Fight For Freedom, Stand For Hong Kong,” Morey tweeted on October 4. Under apparent pressure, Morey deleted the post and apologized, while the NBA scrambled to both appease China and maintain a supposed pro-free speech position.
Amid backlash after the league issued a statement describing Morey’s tweet as having “deeply offended many of our friends and fans in China, which is regrettable,” Commissioner Adam Silver attempted to “clarify” the league’s stance. The NBA “will not put itself in a position of regulating what players, employees and team owners say or will not say on these issues,” said Silver, who went on to defend Morey “exercising his freedom of expression.” But the league also decided to shut down press appearances before and after games in China.
The NBA’s most influential voice, Lakers star LeBron James, came out the worst. James openly chided Morey for expressing support for the pro-democracy demonstrators and painted the league as the true victims in the situation.
“I don’t want to get into a word or sentence feud with Daryl Morey, but I believe he wasn’t educated on the situation at hand and he spoke,” James told reporters on October 15. “So many people could have been harmed, not only financially, but physically, emotionally, and spiritually. So, just be careful what we tweet and say and what we do even though, yes, we do have freedom of speech, there can be a lot of negatives that comes with that too.”
LeBron James rips Daryl Morey, says Morey was uneducated. Says, “We do have freedom of speech, but there can be a lot of negatives that come with that too.” Really. pic.twitter.com/ZTw6a3FZ5n
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) October 15, 2019
In a follow-up to his widely criticized comments, James tweeted, “My team and this league just went through a difficult week. I think people need to understand what a tweet or statement can do to others. And I believe nobody stopped and considered what would happen. Could have waited a week to send it.”
Kaepernick Blows His Chance For A Big Comeback, Blames NFL
Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback and national anthem protester Colin Kaepernick’s private workout debacle tops the list of individual PR fails. After settling with the NFL earlier in the year over his allegation that executives “colluded” against him to keep him out of the league, Kaepernick got his big shot at getting back on the field: The NFL invited him to a private workout with representatives from some 25 of the league’s 32 teams. But, ultimately, because of “distrust” and “resentment” among Kaepernick’s camp, the quarterback-turned-social justice activist skipped the workout and held his own far less attended event at which he ironically accused the league of “running” from him.
According to an extensive ESPN report based on insider sources from both the NFL and Kaepernick’s camp, the November tryout offer to the would-be quarterback was sparked by at least two teams being “legitimately interested in Kaepernick.” But less than an hour before the tryout, team Kaepernick told the league that he wasn’t coming. Instead, he would hold his own event where he could bring his own camera crew and for which he didn’t have to sign the NFL’s tryout waiver (which Kaepernick’s personal representatives thought was a trick to prevent him from filing another lawsuit).
After sporting a shirt invoking slavery and then showing off his arm in front of his own camera crew, Kaepernick gave a defiant statement to the league that accused Goodell and owners of “running” from him despite his own decision to ditch the official tryout.
“We all know why I came out here today and showed it today in front of everybody,” said Kaepernick (video below). “We have nothing to hide, so we’re waiting for the 32 owners, 32 teams, Roger Goodell, all of them to stop running. To stop running from the truth. To stop running from the people.”
A huge thank you to all the people that made this happen in ATL. From our receivers @brice_butler, @BruceElling10, @TheJordanVeasy, @ariwerts – my trainer Josh Hidalgo, the educators at Charles Drew HS & so many more. Can't thank everyone enough. We stay ready.🎥: @RAVisionMedia pic.twitter.com/2bwDjtlstN
— Colin Kaepernick (@Kaepernick7) November 25, 2019
Needless to say, no teams ended up calling Kaepernick. The former quarterback also lost some supporters, among them ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, who said the whole thing just proved that Kaepernick is more interested in playing the role of “martyr” than he is in playing in the league.