Jumping on the bandwagon...coming from a Marketing background...this incident is really a PR Nightmare!
Die if you do, die if you don't!
The only thing you can do is just to TAIJI and push the blame to someone else, otherwise it's really difficult to recover from it.
I don't know but with regards to the way Thox decided to react by "pulling out and disassociating yourself with the client after a PR boo boo strategy", that actually left a bad taste in my mouth. However, if I were them...I probably do the same because there doesn't seem to be any loosening up from the public even after the multiple apologies from the overseas and local organizers!
MAYBE, just maybe if the organizers (both overseas and local) had a video apology with the right tone, it would appease the crowd better than just issuing official letters on their website with responsibility acknowledgement and promises to improve on communication and zero interaction allowed.
Just my 2 cents and I am thinking out of the box...this is meant to be tongue in cheek post so if it offends you..I am sorry!
For a right start to the apology video, they could begin with eating our local delicay which is now the headlines of many reports - Tau Hwey aka Soya Beancurd in the video with the dinner settings they had envisioned at their event and create their own version of how even local food can be showcased at Diner En Blanc with the right amount of effort and thoughts put into it (which is the message they kept emphasising on). May not be the best solution but it's still a start and well, you really can't please everyone. People who are extremely prejudice will still think you are faking it no matter what you do anyway.
They could even invite the bloggers who were uninvited but have graciously accepted their apology to show up on the video or to submit their own video to showcase how they would have done/create their local food in an appropriate setting for Singapore's Diner En Blanc.
Of course, it would take a lot of sincerity to be able to pull this off as the bloggers would have to do this willingly otherwise, it will just backfire.
I am not saying that by re-inviting the bloggers to the
event will smooth out the whole thing but it would be a nice gesture to
say that we were wrong and please allow us to rectify it.
I am sure Singaporeans are not that petty to accept a sincere apology right?
All in all, this whole fiasco was mainly created due to tactless communication and a mismatch of expectations. I honestly believe that every single party in this fiasco just have to be reasonable, upfront, sincere and most importantly, they need to actually wish to resolve it and not just let it ride out.
It's no longer just about food...it's about a Nation's pride as well and in this case, Singapore.
However, having said that, I do hope that everyone should stop stereotyping and blowing the matter out of hand by saying that this incident is a result of :
1) The French are being snobbish
2) Local food are despised on
3) Event caters only for Whites
Everyone deserves a second chance and yes, the matter was handled badly, egos were bruised, service recovery was too slow for liking but please allow them to rectify what went wrong and keep an open mind for future similar events.You don't want to be in any of their shoes right now, trust me. Getting slapped left and right after putting in so much effort in something that they take pride in creating for. The punishment for bad PR is enough, enough damage has been done, let's all know when to be gracious :)
BTW, it might be better for the organizers (local and overseas) to sychronize their stand and messages on this PR Front so that their apology will be more well received and don't try to silence the internet, it's not the way to go.
EDIT 1: This was written before I read http://ieatishootipost.sg/2012/08/diner-en-blanc-singapore-what-really.html and I think it was a really good initiative for the overseas organizers who just flew in to have met up with 1 of Singapore's local food bloggers. A promising start!
For further reading:
http://blog.omy.sg/danielang/archives/2455
http://www.gastronommy.com/2012/08/so-whats-going-on-with-diner-en-blanc.html
http://socialpr.blogspot.com/2012/08/diner-en-blanc-singapore-facebook-page.html
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1222827/1/.html
http://www.gastronommy.com/2012/08/so-whats-going-on-with-diner-en-blanc.html
http://news.xin.msn.com/en/pr-company-leaves-organisers-after-diner-en-blanc-saga
http://soshiok.com/multimedia/photos/1465
http://news.insing.com/feature/diner-en-blanc-blogger-local-food/id-df5c3f00
http://ieatishootipost.sg/2012/08/diner-en-blanc-singapore-what-really.html
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