It’s been a tough year for Nike. Spokesperson problems with Tiger Woods and LeBron James. Continued investigations into labor conditions in Nike factories abroad. Competition like the new Reebok Zig. And now, a stupid legal maneuver that could spell PR disaster.

Brands are forever trying to find ways to stop the Canal Street cottage industry of counterfeiters. (You know you’ve made it when they are selling your knock offs on a street corner). I get it. But Nike has taken anti-counterfeiting to a whole new level by litigating against an individual who bought a single pair of counterfeit sneakers online. They aren’t going after the website selling counterfeit sneakers, or the supplier who sold them to the website. So this poor customer not only paid for fake sneakers, he bought himself a lawsuit, too.

And while the statute says that the intent of the purchaser isn’t relevant, success in this case for Nike is the equivalent of convicting Al Capone on tax evasion or mail fraud, rather than racketeering. Does Nike really want to discourage us from buying their sneakers? Or has their seemingly bulletproof status, weathering spokesperson issues of gargantuan proportions, given them the sort of reputational hubris that makes them an easy target for consumer activism in 2011?

No one likes when the big corporation goes after the little guy. The question is will enough little guys notice this case, and take some sort of action, to make a difference?

cwinters General Corporate Al Capone, LeBron James, Nike, Tiger Woods

We wanted to share this commentary from our CEO, Michael Kempner, which was also published at New Jersey Newsroom

The old rules no longer apply. In fact, they have not applied for quite some time.

As recent headlines made clear, crisis communications is now driven by digital media. Television. Radio. Newspapers. Rather than leading the public discussion of Tiger Woods or Toyota, these traditional – some would say increasingly archaic – mediums seem more like they are trying to catch up with the drama being played out minute-by-minute on Twitter, on Facebook, and on blogs.

To say that the news cycle moves at a frenetic pace may be an understatement. This is the new normal … and it has been for several years. In fact, shrewd companies implemented corporate social media policies years ago and have incorporated them into their daily marketing and communications activities.

This is particularly true for brands in crisis.

Gone is the focus on the evening news or the morning newspaper. Gone is the ability to craft a single, official-sounding press release. Gone is the ability to control the flow of bad information.

When the 1982 Tylenol scare was unfolding, company executives had to deal with a relatively new, relatively challenging phenomenon: a 24-hour news cycle. Information had to flow faster. Stories were harder to control. And crisis communications took on a whole new meaning. In other words, CNN made life a whole lot more challenging for companies trying to do damage control.

Yet, the medium and the message were essentially unchanged. Johnson & Johnson still relied on traditional media and were still able to use the same statements – substantively – for each venue.

Fast forward to 2010 when Toyota and Southwest Airlines were confronted with their own crises, and you have a vastly different, vastly more challenging picture. New venues. New expectations. New opportunities. New challenges.

Without question, Toyota’s response to its growing recall has failed in almost every respect. It has been slow. It has been confused. And it has been premised on the company’s misguided belief that it could control the flow of bad information. These missteps, in turn, have been compounded by Toyota’s failure to effectively use social media – something that is further undermining the company’s ability to tell its story, connect with its customers and maintain its credibility.

Southwest, on the other hand, immediately turned to digital outlets when actor Kevin Smith began tweeting to his 1.6 million followers about his “embarrassing” experience aboard a recent flight. Granted, the airline got beaten to the punch in this case of “he said, she said”, but it moved swiftly across a range of digital mediums — with a host of individually tailored messages — to issue its apology and clarify the situation.

Yet, it is instructive to recognize that this relatively minor story – which started from less than 140 characters on Twitter – almost immediately resulted in over 500,000 Google web results, over 50,000 blog entries, and nearly 2,000 news stories on the matter.

Back in the day, Tiger Wood’s carefully choreographed press event would have largely controlled the story. The evening news would have covered it. The morning newspapers would have covered it. And that would be the end of the conversation until later that evening. No blog postings. No Facebook comments. No tweets. No nothing. Just some water cooler talk among colleagues.

That was then.

Today, regardless of the company or the crisis, the fact remains: Information – real and rumor – travels at lightning speed…literally. The pace and form of information flow is now near impossible to control. The best a company can hope to do is try to manage it. And the best way to manage it is to embrace the new normal with respect to crisis communications.

In other words, go digital … yesterday.

msacks Crisis Communications, General Corporate Crisis, Tiger Woods, Toyota

I know we’ve all had our fill of the Tiger Woods soap opera over the past few months, but in the wake of his video apology this commentary from iconic golf writer Dan Jenkins just begs to be shared.

Jenkins’ conclusion, in a nutshell: Woods’ reputation is “graveyard dead, as the Southern expression goes.” Jenkins compares the Tiger brand to those of Nicklaus, Palmer and Hogan, who were in his opinion “accessible, likable, knowable, conversant, as gracious in loss as they were in victory… All the things Tiger never was.”

So what’s the takeaway for corporate brands? Accessibility, engagement with your core audiences and grace under pressure are excellent building blocks for a strong reputational foundation. So is honesty. By failing to incorporate these key blocks into Tiger Inc., Mr. Woods and his handlers have watched their foundation erode more quickly than sand against a strong tide.

Bob Silver can be reached at bsilver@mww.com.

bsilver General Corporate Tiger Woods

Despite my desire to avoid jumping on the Tiger Woods and Toyota bandwagons, the events of the past week make it nearly impossible for me to avoid the topics.

First, Tiger Woods sets the example for what not to do with apologies. My colleague Mike has already written about the need for authenticity for apologies to be impactful. Apparently Tiger doesn’t read our blog. So Tiger delivered the canned apology we all expected, with about as much personality and sincerity as a doorknob. The winning personality that matched his golf game, and made him a sponsorship darling, was nowhere to be seen. But at least he re-assured his sponsors that he intended to compete.

But even more striking to me was the artificial, overly managed nature of the event. Press credentials were carefully guarded, and only issued on the condition that the news outlet not ask any questions. Some, like the golf writers, boycotted the event in protest and refused to cover it. But Tiger’s hand selected group of friends was there, creating the appearance of a press event and public appearance, but in reality Tiger’s people could have hired extras from SAG with the same result. Perhaps the ultimate irony is that Tiger used that opportunity to chastise the media for harassing his innocent wife and children – when the media feeding frenzy was exacerbated by the fact that he was nowhere to be found. Does he really think this orchestrated “press conference” will be enough to feed the media beast?

Tiger is presumably a smart guy. (And his extra-curricular love life is certainly the best thing that ever happened to Kate Gosselin since her new hairdo – but I digress.) He certainly had the resources to hire enough advisors and handlers to orchestrate this inauthentic apology. It’s hard to imagine that this approach was originated by these strategists and approved by handlers whose livelihood depends on Tiger’s image rebound. And while the American public is forgiving, and will readily move on as soon as Tiger returns to the PGA tour, it is hard to imagine that the objectionable stalking of his family will stop any time soon.

My grandmother used to tell me, “The only way through something difficult is through it.” And I think that requires legitimately going through it – not creating a sanitized version of through it.

No one knows this better than Toyota as they prepare their leaders for Congressional appearances and some pretty tough questions, particularly in light of documents revealing the cost savings of a phased recall, and the potential perception that the automaker chose profits ahead of the safety of the people driving those vehicles.

Carreen Winters can be reached at cwinters@mww.com.

cwinters Crisis Communications, General Corporate Tiger Woods, Toyota

Tiger Woods’ Thanksgiving weekend car crash spawned a cottage industry for the media. The tabloids have reported breathlessly 24/7 about his alleged extra-marital exploits, the participants (both outed and self promoted) and a possible stay at a rehab facility. Cable and national TV news programs have to various extents joined the tabloid fray or just reported on the tabloid reports. The business/financial media have covered Tiger’s myriad sponsors and their varying reactions to his debacle as well as the financial impact on him, his sponsors and the golf industry.

Now comes Tiger’s first public pronouncement on the dalliances that have gripped the nation (ABC News ran the news as their lead story last night in front on the release of Americans held in Haiti, the one-year anniversary of the stimulus and the US gold medal haul in Vancouver). Tiger and his people, who already have a nice record of pr/crisis communications missteps since late November, have dictated that his appearance in front of a group of hand-picked friends, colleagues and close associates will include only a short statement in front of one camera with no reporters or Q&A.

The logistics and choreography of this event should be a primer for celebrities/sports stars as well as corporations/executives on how not to respond to a reputational crisis. Corporations and sports stars who deal with crises successfully have learned that the best way to move forward and begin reputational repairs is to address the situation quickly and factually, to be transparent and to engage the questions of the media and the public. To do otherwise only perpetuates the crisis, allowing others to fill the void with their own answers, competitors to seize on the opportunities that are afforded and reputations to remain denigrated.

The executives at Toyota (who made numerous communications missteps but are slowly figuring things out) and former baseball star and now avowed steroid user Mark McGwire (who after years in the wilderness is making his way back) are just two recent examples of what works and what doesn’t when it comes to crisis communications and reputation. Tiger is arguably the greatest golfer of all-time but is terms of crisis communication and repairing the reputation he worked so hard to build he is nothing more than a weekend duffer.

Richard Tauberman can be reached at rtauberman@mww.com.

rtauberman Crisis Communications Crisis, reputation, Tiger Woods