Another year, another list of blunders, where people left right and centre are faced with the consequences of their public relations crisis handling. Of course plenty of good things happened in 2009, but there also appeared to be a whole list of mistakes which left a lot of people rather red-faced.
1. Tiger Woods infidelity claims
What a disaster 2009 proved to be for billionaire golfer Tiger Woods, where he was linked to a string of women all claiming to have had affairs with him. The golfer’s previously squeaky-clean image suffered a devastating blow, after details of the infidelities hit the headlines. Not only was Woods critisised for the alleged affairs, but also for his mishandling of the aftermath, where he waited two days to comment on the accusations. Maybe a faster public response from the golfer would have saved his now tattered reputation, and his sponsor’s shareholders wouldn’t have lost an estimated £7.2 billion in the process.
2. Gordon Brown’s condolence letter
Gordon Brown faced a public backlash this year, after sending a letter of condolence to the mother of Afghanistan war victim, Jamie Janes. The letter which was handwritten by the Prime Minister was littered with misspellings, where he even addressed the mother as “Mrs James”. A Downing Street spokeswoman for the Prime Minister claims that he spends “a great deal of time” writing personal condolence letters and would never knowingly misspell a name. If this is the case then maybe his people need to check his letters a bit more carefully to avoid future blunders.
3. Harry’s racism comments
The Royal Family suffered an embarrassing revelation at the start of 2009, when video footage of Prince Harry making a racist remark to a Pakistani member of his platoon was leaked to the public. The prince, who is third in line to the thrown, was left red-faced after the video showed him calling a platoon member a “rag-head” amongst other things. The Prince’s spokesman quickly tried to make amends by stating that the comments were made in a friendly way, however his mock-phone call to his grandmother, which he ended with “god save you” proved to be a bit harder to dismiss.
4. Chris Brown’s assault charge
Never has a pop star tarnished his own reputation as quickly as Chris Brown did, after news of his physical attack on pop-star girlfriend Rihanna went public this year. Chris Brown was charged with assault, and after pictures of Rihanna’s disfigured face were leaked online the demise of his career seemed imminent. After being given the opportunity to speak about the incident on Larry King Live, instead of delivering the heart-felt apology the public was anticipating his reply was: “I was just like wow”. Needless to say sales of his new album “Graffiti” were at an all time low when it was released in December.
5. Serena William’s tennis outburst
Serena Williams proved to be a sore loser after her dramatic outburst at the US Open Semi-Finals this year. She challenged a female line judge at the match, where she swore at her, threatening to shove the ball down her throat. When asked at a press conference whether she would apologise she seemed genuinely shocked that this would be a possibility, claiming that everyone does it. Maybe if somebody had explained to Serena the importance of a public apology, she might have avoided the $82,500 fine she had to pay.
6. Domino’s Pizza health and safety blunder
It wasn’t fast food giant Domino’s finest moment this year, when the global pizza company had to face millions of angry customers after a video of staff members tampering with food was posted on YouTube. The company’s spokesman quickly issued a press release claiming that there was no evidence the tampered food had been served to anyone. However they had obviously underestimated the power of YouTube, where the video plays reached one million before it got removed and they had a flood of enraged customers to deal with.
7. Kerry Katona’s very public meltdown
Kerry Katona appeared to win the nation over after her appearance on I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here in 2004. Fast forward a couple of years and things seem to be on a downward spiral for the ex-popstar, when she became linked to a string of drug abuse claims. Her spokesman denied all rumours of course, however it may have been a little embarrassing this year when video-footage of Katona taking cocaine was splashed across the internet. Not surprisingly Kerry lost her Iceland ad contract and is now facing bankruptcy.
8. Kate’s pro-anorexia remark
It is safe to say Kate Moss has become an iconic figure to many during her 20 year modelling career. Maybe her iconic status however, hasn’t brought with it the realisation of the massive impact her comments will have. In a rare online interview this year she stated how “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels”, which caused a public outcry as many feared this would encourage victims of eating disorders. The whole disaster suggests that modelling does not teach tactfulness.
9. Cheryl Cole’s L’Oreal criticism
Cheryl’s career seems to have gone from strength to strength since she joined chart-toppers Girls Aloud. However nobody can be perfect all the time and Cheryl Cole faced criticism after saying the famous “because you’re worth it” words on a L’Oreal hair ad this year. Woman quickly realised if they wanted hair like Cheryl’s they would need to fork out a lot more than the price of shampoo to achieve it. The Girls aloud star’s hair was styled with “natural extensions” for the ad and woman felt misled as no amount of shampoo would give them those locks. An unusual blunder for Cheryl which could have been easily avoided by ditching the fake hair and opting for the natural look.
10. Gordon Ramsay’s fast-food slip up
The Michelin star chef faced a rather embarrassing revelation earlier this year, when it became apparent that the food he sold in restaurants was prepared in bulk offsite, and then transported into his kitchens to be re-heated. Ramsay, who has always stressed the importance of freshly prepared food, insisted that the meals are indeed still freshly prepared. Customers failed to sympathise however after learning that the boil-in-the-bag style meals are often sold for six times the cost price after being heated up again. The restaurant profits obviously weren’t enough for his company, Gordon Ramsay Holdings, as the television chef came close to losing the business empire this year and had to resort to selling his prized Ferrari to raise much needed cash.
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February 4th, 2010 at 2:37 pm
Great article – but should Kate Moss not be higher up the scale for her comments? Someone order the woman a Dominos Pizza – STAT!
February 4th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
Thanks Clare! We couldn’t decide whether to order her a Domino’s or send her to Gordon Ramsey’s restaurant for her dinner!
February 4th, 2010 at 2:48 pm
Love this article. And to Kate Moss I would say – clearly booze tastes MUCH better than skinny feels! Haha!
February 20th, 2010 at 1:19 am
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May 9th, 2010 at 12:24 pm
fabulous! Cheryl is a an remarkable gal. I really adore her work and have been following here for years. The whole family loves watching X factor.
June 23rd, 2010 at 8:59 am
Serena Williams is tough…she makes her first round opponent go quietly at wimbledon