A Much Needed Middle Point

Alyssa Gormley
ag461517@ohio.edu

Hannah Montana once said, “everybody makes mistakes”, and I felt that. I make mistakes, and so does everybody else. What’s most important to remember about mistakes — even minor mistakes —  is their power to define. 

By: KFC

Beloved KFC, a Kentucky Fried Chicken company, had been marketing quite poorly to their consumers. However, it didn’t become a larger scale issue until about 10 years ago. KFC began to advertise their chicken as “slow cooked” instead of “deep fried” in an attempt to conform to society’s obesity needs. Furthermore, KFC claimed their chicken as “health food” instead of what it really is — comfort, fast food. Years later, KFC continued their ‘health’ trend and partnered with the Susan G. Komen to raise money for the non-profit, breast cancer based organization. Sure enough, the public spoke out and the partnership lead to a negative relationship with each company, as well as their audiences. Ultimately, misleading acts of advertising and marketing left KFC with not only less business, but an overall bad reputation with the public (especially those concerned with dietary and health issues). 

Similar situations happened with McDonalds, where The New York Times stated in an article that Mcdonalds advertised their oatmeal as a “bowl full of wholesome.” McDonalds is one of the largest fast food chains in the nation, as well as internationally. Following the trend of KFC, McDonalds made an effort in providing “smarter choices” to reach consumers with dietary needs, or moreso, the audience that doesn’t support their chain. Once again, McDonalds faced outlash, criticism, and a severe reputation. 

Dove in 2017, however, dealt with a different issue — diversity. Dove had created a social media ad in an attempt to convey their campaign surrounding “the beauty of diversity”. In the advertisement, a black woman is wearing a brown tee shirt and, when removed a white woman in a white shirt is revealed. The New York Times explained that one social media user “evoked a long-running racist trope in soap advertising: a “dirty” black person cleansed into whiteness.” Dove had pure intentions of shining positive light on a societal issue, only in the end to remind themselves to be more charismatic with advertising diversity. Once again, poor marketing and advertising led Dove to the road of fixing their corrupt reputation. 

So, what’s the solution? How does a company rebuild and recover their reputation? The Columbia Journalism Review described the tensions of the “culture war” between print and digital journalists, which had previously been considered “a generational divide.” Print journalists stand behind detail, where major and minor critiques were made in order to avoid any falsies or mistakes that would cause outcries from the public. Digital journalists, however, stand behind the idea of the internet correcting mistakes and/or the truth in their published stories. Companies tend to choose one or the other, print or digital journalists. Buzzfeed, a company well-known on the internet for phony quizzes and less reliable articles, is doing something different. Instead of staying in their same reputation, Buzzfeed is building its brand, message, and mistake-making more than ever. Buzzfeed believes that whatever is published in their name matters, especially their articles. Furthermore, Buzzfeed is acting on this belief by hiring copy editors to finely tune and edit their articles before being posted on the internet. This positive balance between print and digital journalists is slowly but surely shifting Buzzfeed into a better reputation. Ultimately, Buzzfeed has found a good middle point in such a divided era. So, what’s the solution? I believe that any company who has failed in the eyes of the public should accept what has been done, and apologize for their actions. By doing this, a common ground of empathy and trust is established with the audience. Once voicing the apology, I would then follow in the footsteps of Buzzfeed: find a good middle point. Whether that’s in the realm of journalism, or elsewhere, every company needs to understand where they… stand.