Learning from mistakes: The biggest PR blunders of 2010

Let's face it, no matter how you wake up on New Year's day (fresh with resolutions at hand or  hung over and trying to recall resolutions ) the memories that we carry forward with us  from the previous year are the prominent events that transpired in our personal lives and the public eye. We do this because these events are lessons that we hope to learn from and it also shapes the way we receive the days ahead.

So, in the spirit of learning and bidding farewell to the year that was, I have compiled a few of the  PR nightmares of 2010 that you probably heard of unless you were living under a sound proof shell.

Hence, Smart Communication Presents: 

Learning from mistakes: The biggest PR blunders of 2010

BP: Oops I did it again...

  Tons and tons of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico and just as many “should haves”, “would haves” and “could haves”.

Public relations professionals are all for speaking out early and often in times of crisis and that’s what CEO Tony Hayward did. Unfortunately he mangled British Petroleum’s corporate image by downplaying the damage and issuing thoughtless sound bites, including “it wasn’t our accident” and “I just want my life back”–after 11 workers lost their lives in the explosion of oil rig Deepwater Horizon.