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The 5 biggest PR disasters of the past year

Fri, 28 Jun 2013 22:41:00 +0000

The Paula Deen scandal has been grabbing headlines for two straight weeks -- first because of revelations that America's Southern sweetheart had used the n-word and done other racially insensitive things -- but then because it took Deen days to do what she should have done immediately: apologize. Deen's may be the worst in a while, but here are 5 other major PR disasters from the past year:

1. KitchenAid's Twitter incident

KitchenAid insulted Obama's dead grandmother during the presidential debates in October, tweeting "Obamas gma even knew it was going 2 b bad! ‘She died 3 days b4 he became president’ #nbcpolitics." To its credit, the company stemmed the bleeding by deleting the tweet and immediately issuing an apology on Twitter and later to news outlets.

2. Lance Armstrong's interview with Oprah

After several missed opportunities to admit that he took performance enhancing drugs, a USDA investigation charged seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong with doping. Only then did Armstrong try to come clean in a tell-all interview with Oprah -- but by then it was too little, too late.

“Parks and Recreation” star Jim O’Heir shops at A&F

Fri, 17 May 2013 13:06:00 +0000

Jimmy Kimmel recently invited actor Jim O'Heir, who plays "Parks and Recreation" office oaf Jerry Gergich, to shop at the infamously douchey retail store Abercrombie & Fitch. The stunt was inspired by a 2006 Salon story that quotes Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries as saying his store is only for "cool kids":

"Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely. Those companies that are in trouble are trying to target everybody: young, old, fat, skinny. But then you become totally vanilla. "

Abercrombie does not carry plus sizes. Fortunately for O'Heir, Abercrombercrombercombie does.

Abercrombie CEO’s weird rules on his private jet

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 19:48:00 +0000