Never "Fro"get: NBA Team Creates Controversy On 9/11
Last week, as we remembered those who passed during the September 11th tragedy, we couldn’t help but to express our emotions via social media. With that being said, millions of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram posts flooded the social media world: those in which included professional sport teams. However, some received more negative publicity than positive. For instance, the Los Angeles Lakers found themselves in a sticky situation after a tweet they posted on Thursday morning. The Lakers simply tweeted, “#NeverForget” with a young photo of Kobe Bryant. The photograph created controversy due to the fact that Bryant had a fro, which made it seem that the public should never forget September 11th, along with Kobe Bryant’s fro. The Lakers never intended the post to be humorous or defensive, and deleted the tweet immediately. An email was then sent to USA Today from the Lakers spokesman, expressing his apologies for the contentious tweet. Although this was not a full-blown crisis, a sport organization should always have an effective crisis management plan.
This type of crisis on an online social medium was almost a blessing in disguise for the NBA team. Even though a vast majority of the public saw the post, the Lakers were able to quickly delete it as if nothing ever happened. However, the only downfall was that the public could have saved the photo before the post was taken down. This could potentially be problematic due to the fact that the post could be easily shared through more social mediums such as Facebook and Instagram.
Despite the fact that the Lakers, "Never Forget" tweet sparked negative criticism, I feel that they handled the situation calmly and effectively; which hopefully put the public at ease.
For more information:
http://bit.ly/145s87N
Insightful post, Michele! This wasn't the only instance of supposed 9/11 tributes in bad taste. Poynter shares other stories, http://bit.ly/16cNbDc.
ReplyDeleteI found this to be very interesting. I did not hear about this incident and the fact that I, and probably many others, were not aware of this situation, that shows that they reacted in a very timely manor. I agree with your standings on this, and I feel that maybe next time the Lakers will be more careful about what they post on Twitter.
ReplyDelete-Malissa V
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You touch on a great point when it comes to the flaws of social media. If you make a mistake and want to delete something it is almost impossible to take it back once its been posted. I can understand the humor in the post and I don't think it is that offensive to be honest. It has been 12 years since 9/11 and to post a picture like this isn't as bad as they are making it out to be. The importance that you touched on is that crisis management plans are crucial and social media has changed the way we develop these plans.
ReplyDelete-Lisa Good
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I personally wasn't offended with the post. Without having a bias, for I am a Lakers fan, I feel it was unobtrusive and shouldn't be taken too seriously. Enough time has past since the tragic events of 9/11. Like the article says,"This is not a full-blown crisis." The post was made with good intentions.
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