Articles/Apple Post

I think the articles that were posted on Lambiase blog were really good examples of the way that companies can handle PR and do a really good or really bad job. In the McKinney cheer leading sponsor story, I think that the school district was already really publicized when the cheerleaders posted the pictures of them online in front of a condom store in uniform. It looked really bad on the image of not just the cheer leading store but also the school district. I think that the school did a really bad job at handling the entire situation because they could have used it to do something positive LIKE have some sort of seminar about the kind of things people are posting online, especially on myspace and facebook, and it is important for people/athletes/scholarship recipients/miss America contestants/teachers, etc. are getting caught doing things and it is simply because of the type of material that is being posted online. Also, this type of material is being used by people in court cases etc. They could have done some type of seminar; I've seen on the news that colleges are having these people come and talk to students about this issue.It's a big deal and students/people in general need to be aware of these dangers. But the school district did next to nothing, then fire the person who was really trying to do the right thing, and really sent mixed messages to people.
Same thing with Southwest. Horrible. Mistakes happen, Southwest should have taken an immediate stance on the issue. They can not use the "we will just sit back and let it die down." It doesn't work like that and it an apology is made, and steps are taken to help the company, such as an official policy come out about dress code, then laying low for a while, trying to stay out of headlines might be okay. Saying nothing does nothing for you. It really hurts you.
Apple really did a messed up thing to it's commit ed buyers, the one that are loyal to every Apple product, and the one that care about Apple the most. And then the company allowed Steve Jobs to almost be sarcastic in what he said the those people who expressed their frustration with the situation and then the PR people must have gotten involved and told him what needed to happen. But needless to say, it was a classic case of a company not understanding that anyone out there can make phones, MP3 players, computers, whatever. But you have to keep customers, and make people loyal to your brand. Without that, you are nothing.