Case Study: Rogue Red Cross

Originally written in 2014 as a case study at East Carolina University by Maggie Pendergrass.

Rogue Red Cross

In February of 2011, an employee of the American Red Cross tweeted out “Ryan found two more 4 bottle packs of Dogfish Head’s Midas Touch beer… when we drink we do it right #gettngslizzerd,” on the Red Cross’ twitter to over 270,000 followers. The tweet, written by employee Gloria Huang, was removed by the organization and the Red Cross responded. The issue stemmed from the tweet, insinuating that the organization was “drinking on the job” since it was tweeted in their name. The tweet immediately had push back, with people tweeting and alerting the organization of the mistype. The Red Cross responded tweeting, “We've deleted the rogue tweet but rest assured the Red Cross is sober and we've confiscated the keys.” This tweet launched a massive fundraising and blood donation drive that occurred in the months following.

The Red Cross’ ability to laugh at the situation and turn the negative tweet into a positive situation became a huge strength for the organization and the PR issue at hand. The tweet released saying that they “confiscated the keys,” reassured the public that they understood that this was an accident and although they know that these things happen, that it was taken care of. This strength paid off reassuring the public that they were still the organization they had always been, committed to making sure that they were there for the people who needed them.

A weakness shown by this issue however, was their social media usage at the time. The Red Cross, at the time, was not known for this kind of social media outreach or cleverness online. What seemed like an accurate response could’ve been perceived as a negative reaction coming from various people who hold the Red Cross to a higher standard of public image. Through the years their presence has become more casual in nature, fitting this response, however at the time, it was risky.

An opportunity and possible outcomes the Red Cross, as well as Dogfish Beer, had while in the midst of this scandal, was the opportunity to save lives with Dogfish’s “Give a Pint, Get a Pint” campaign. Whenever someone donated a pint of blood, they could receive a free pint of Dogfish Beer depending on the bar they were in. This “beer for blood” idea created a new era and increased the Red Cross’ donations during the scandal significantly. A threat, however, to the organization, is its credibility and security. If a marketing or social media employee can access his or her phone at any time from anywhere, the company is posed with a serious security risk with the potential hackers going in and spamming their followers or worse, defaming them publicly from their personal account.

The takeaways from this case are that personal and professional Twitters need to be separated for the sake of the company’s reputation. Also, more often than not, adding humor while taking responsibility for the small things can actually pay off in the long run, even creating good things. However, it needs to be done with class and respectfully to all parties involved. The lack of separation can cause a lot of harm to a company in just 140 characters.

Works Cited

Bhasin, K. (2011, May 26). 9 PR Fiascos That Were Handled Brilliantly By Management. Retrieved October 20, 2014, from http://www.businessinsider.com/pr-disasters-crisis-management2011-5?op=1

Segall, L. (2011, February 17). Boozy Red Cross tweet turns into marketing bonanza for Dogfish Brewery. Retrieved October 20, 2014, from http://money.cnn.com/2011/02/17/smallbusiness/dogfish_redcross/