Tigers Top 6....Biggest PR Blunders

If there has been one hot topic in crisis communications of late, it's golfer Tiger Woods. Now there's no need to rehash the aspects of what got Tiger into his predicament, but there has been a lot of water cooler talk regarding how his PR team handled the fallout from the very start. Public Relations Society of America's most recent post came yesterday with an excerpt from a Newsweek article by Matthew Phillips. The article discussed Tiger's press conference this past Monday at Augusta National for his first major appearance at the 2010 Masters. PRSA called the press conference his best attempt yet at damage control and then went on to state what Phillips considers Tigers 6 biggest mistakes over the last few months.

1. Deafening silence- The first rule in any crisis is to get out in front of the story early, but for four months, Tiger was mute — and the longer he went without speaking, the more people wanted to know why. Surely, not all of the gossip is true, but with nothing from Tiger, we’re left to assume it is.

2. Refusal to meet with police- For two days police came to Tiger’s house to interview him, and he refused to let them in — smacking of preferential treatment and fueling speculation that something really shady was going on.

3. Castigating the media- Before the scandal broke, Tiger owed his fortune as much to the media’s gushing, hands-off depiction of him as to his talents as a golfer, Philips wrote. And now Woods’ castigation of the media for prying into his private life reeks of hypocrisy.

4. Refusing to provide details of what happened that night- Tiger maintains that whatever happened was a private matter, but if he doesn’t address it, people will keep assuming the worst.

5. March 21 interviews with Golf Channel and ESPN- A month after his public apology on Feb. 19, Tiger gave two five-minute interviews to the Golf Channel and ESPN. Either the questions were restricted or those two reporters chose to ask the softest questions ever, Philips wrote. For Tiger’s scandal to reach any closure, he will have to be interviewed by a big-name reporter.

6. He should have played in a tournament before the Masters- In Monday’s press conference, Tiger said he wasn’t ready to play before the Masters, but choosing the world’s most famous golf tournament for his return smacks of hubris, Philips wrote. This year’s Masters will be a media circus, and it’s unlikely that any of the other players are looking forward to the distraction.

I personally was one of those people lingering around the water cooler yapping about "this Tiger Wood's situation." Now I know that crisis communications is a tough area of public relations, no one really hopes for it, and we all try to be prepared for it, but I tend to agree with all of Phillips points. These are all questions that I've asked myself as a PR professional. I guess all we can do is hope for the best, learn from the situation, and if we find ourselves handling a crisis in the future, ask ourselves, what's the opposite of what Tiger would do?

-Ashley for AMP3 Public Relations

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