Had to pick between firing my social media manager or letting that apology post go live

My brand's canned soup line got caught in a fake 'farm fresh' labeling scandal last month and I had 2 choices before the press release went out - fire the manager who approved the labels or let her write the apology. I kept her on and the apology she wrote was basically 'we're sorry you got mad,' which tanked our stock by 12% in a week. Who else has dealt with a PR disaster where no option felt right?

2 comments

2 Comments

sam_murphy392d ago

12% in a week, that's brutal. Did the board push back on keeping her on, or was that your call alone? Curious if you had any input from legal or outside PR before the apology went live. Seems like firing her might have been cleaner but harder to sell to the team. What was the tipping point that made you decide to keep her?

riley_schmidt2d ago

Maybe it's just me but I wonder if the real issue here isn't about whether to fire her or not, but that the board and legal team spent more time crafting the apology than they did figuring out why the stock tanked. 12% in a week suggests investors were spooked by something deeper than one person's mistake, like maybe the whole company's culture or long term direction. The tipping point might have been less about her and more about realizing how fragile the stock price was to begin with. If the apology felt genuine and kept her on, it could have been a strategic move to show stability while they quietly fix the bigger problems behind the scenes.