The couple was being considered for the upcoming reality show Real Housewives of DC and may have attended the dinner as a publicity stunt. Records show that they were not invited and not on the guest list.

So how did they get into the dinner? The couple did not have an invitation to present at the gate, and claimed it was in their car. Yet, the Secret Service let them through. The Secret Service has publicly apologized, but they are not the only ones at fault.

White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers should be taking the fall for this mess. Rogers was supposed to be checking guests in, but put herself on the guest list, instead of the staff list. She refuses to testify, and stated that it was not her fault, since none of her staff were even there at the doors!

The White House should be presenting a united front and message, with one spokesperson citing all of the parties who are at fault. No one should be letting Rogers speak, and a good explanation for exactly why this happened and who was there to let the couple in should be presented to the public.

In addition, the White House keeps focusing on the fact that the couple posed no threat to Obama as they went through the same security screening as all of the other guests. That’s great, but everyone is still asking why the couple made it inside the White House in the first place.

For these reasons, the White House practiced bad PR in this situation. Next time, using PR tactics such as presenting one message, one statement of what occurred, and having one spokesperson would be more effective.

After Cowell’s comment, Hudson went on to say: “If I’d been any better at my job when I was at Burger King in my middle teens, I wouldn’t be here either, so should I thank them, too?” Hudson worked at Burger King when she was 16 and sang while working.

Instead of responding with criticism, Burger King took the opportunity to practice good PR for their company. Burger King used PR through their spokesperson to respond to Hudson’s comments. The company announced that it would be giving Hudson a prepaid Burger King Crown Card that will be reloaded for life.

Through this PR tactic, Burger King generated positive coverage of its company, communicated to its employees (an important stakeholder) that it truly cares about their success, and showed that it can turn a negative comment into a positive opportunity for good PR.

While this PR tactic may not be appropriate for every company, BK’s PR was in line with a statement on their company website about corporate responsibility. The company states that its corporate responsibility approach is stakeholder driven in four main areas: food, people, environment, and corporate governance.

BK’s response to Hudson’s comment reflects their commitment to two key stakeholders: food and people. Good job BK!

Southwest’s defense of its policy, called “Customer of Size,” was met with both opposition and appreciation from the media and bloggers. Some complained that Southwest was discriminating against larger customers, while others were overjoyed that the airline was finally listening to customer complaints about sitting next to overweight customers on flights.

Southwest’s response to media and online criticism, especially blog posts, is an excellent example of good PR. Despite criticism and media backlash, Southwest has successfully gained support for its policy from customers of a normal weight and the courts. The airline has had the policy since 1980, and has only been sued five times over it. Every time, Southwest won.

In addition, the airline demonstrated good PR in its response by posting a detailed Q & A on its website. The page explains the “Customer of Size” policy, how such a customer is defined, the reasons for the policy, and the protection the policy has under the law. The airline cites various laws and explains that they have not violated any of them with the policy.

The page defines a “Customer of Size” as one who cannot fit in a seat with both armrests lowered. The company explains that their employees will take every step to use discretion when explaining to passengers that they must pay for an extra seat and is not trying to embarrass any passenger.

Customers are charged a discounted rate for the second seat if they paid a discounted rate for their first ticket, or are charged for a child’s fare for the second seat if they paid full price. Southwest also refunds customers who have to pay for an extra seat after the flight if the flight is not full. What a deal, the site states that most customers receive a refund after their flight.

Finally, the airline justifies its policy because of numerous customer complaints of having a larger seatmate encroach onto their seat. The airline believes the seating situations are unsafe and uncomfortable for the customer who paid for their own seat. Southwest did not ignore the complaints of its customers, and has approached the situation in a sensitive way that is legally supported.

For these reasons, Southwest Airline’s policy  is an example of good PR.

In addition, the Metro Bank name-change crisis tells of similar internal/employee communication problems. The crisis began as consumers posted stories about the complications they had experienced due to the bank’s name change. Metro Bank employees decided to join the conversation, and fueled the crisis. Employees discussed the disorganization and confusion within Metro Bank, all the way up to the Regional Presidents of the Bank. One employee even used profanity toward consumers and called them bad customers. If Metro Bank’s PR practitioner(s) had implemented a crisis communication plan for employees, many of the negative effects of the crisis could have been eliminated (the company also should have had a better crisis communication plan for external stakeholders, especially consumers). PR practitioners should have educated employees about social media use and its consequences for the company. Most importantly, PR practitioners and company executives should have focused on engaging employees. The actively disengaged employees who responded to consumers’ blog posts did not feel loyalty to or have a deep connection with the company. Thus, PR should mean engaging not only external stakeholders, but internal ones as well.

PR practitioners can create programs that increase the number of engaged employees in an organization. To do this, practitioners must build trust with employees and encourage transparent internal communication. If internal communication is transparent, communication with external stakeholders will also be transparent, and the organization will be viewed as credible. Practitioners must ensure that internal communication is frequent, authentic, and builds quality relationships with employees. Practitioners already work to build these types of relationships with consumers and other external stakeholders, and are experts on how to engage various stakeholders.

If employee/internal communication and engaged employees are beneficial to organizations in so many ways, why are some organizations not turning to PR practitioners who can offer invaluable expertise?

Brita’s CSR aligns with its “About Us” section on the company’s website. Brita “prides itself in being a good corporate citizen,” and uses the Filter For Good campaign and others like it to demonstrate that their company cares about the environment. Of course, these are PR tactics used to implement CSR, but this is where CSR begins for Brita, not where it ends. The Filter For Good campaign goes beyond the company’s statement that it cares about the environment. Filter For Good empowers consumers to adopt eco-friendly habits, instead of simply telling consumers how the company helps the environment. For example, Filter For Good partnered with the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and eliminated the need for the 50,000 disposable water bottles the Festival gave to attendees in 2008. Attendees were given complimentary Nalgene bottles and filled them with filtered Brita water located throughout the Festival. Not only did this reduce waste at the Festival, it encouraged consumers to continue to reduce bottled water waste in the future.

Brita’s CSR strengthens relationships with key stakeholders such as consumers, employees, and shareholders. Filter For Good helps to ensure that key stakeholders feel that their contributions (monetary or otherwise) to the company are making an impact in the world and making a difference. In addition, the Filter For Good partnership with the Sundance Film Festival exhibits Brita’s desire to place environmental issues and interests before its own self-interests. This is exemplified by the free filtered water Brita provided and the free water bottles provided by Nalgene. Donating their products in this way for environmental interests impacted consumers. Through the Filter For Good CSR campaign, Brita has demonstrated that others truly benefit from the company’s existence (the point of CSR).

PR practitioners must also remember that their role in CSR is not to use it as a tool, but to use PR as a tool for CSR implementation. Unfortunately, many continue to view PR as just image building and publicity. Due to this, CSR must not become a tool used for publicity as part of a PR program for a company. Instead, CSR must stand apart from PR and become something that is embedded in a company’s core focus and values.

In addition, CSR cannot be used simply as PR to strengthen relationships with key stakeholders. As a result of a company proving through CSR that it seeks to promote and achieve more than its own self-interests, CSR should strengthen relationships with key stakeholders. Moreover, effective PR for a company should be a product of CSR implementation.

PR and CSR both target stakeholders such as employees, shareholders, and customers. Once a company has implemented CSR into its core values and mission, the company can use PR to inform key stakeholders of this. CSR means putting social and other global issues before a company’s self-interest. Thus, CSR implementation should begin before PR about CSR. Otherwise, companies and practitioners are missing the point of CSR: others should benefit from the existence of a company.

Many PR practitioners could learn a lot from implementing CSR themselves (and gain some credibility too).

Edleman responded to the controversy with a plan to evaluate and improve its company and employee ethics. The company asked for feedback online, and created a plan for ensuring ethical behavior and transparency in the new social media industry. The Edleman/Walmart fiasco caused PR practitioners to reevaluate their ethical standards online. The cry for transparency and honesty increased, and bloggers called for the creation of a code of ethics specifically for blogging. In addition, the ethical issue of disclosure was, and continues to be debated. People called for the writers of the Walmart blogs to disclose their true identities. Normal people, not just those in the PR industry, wanted the Edleman employees to disclose their identities and uphold ethical standards.

My answer to “Do people care about disclosure?” Yes, they do. Should they be regulating practitioners on blogs and other forms of social media? Is it the public’s responsibility to insist on disclosure, transparency, trust, and honesty when astroturfing practitioners violate codes of ethics? These, and other ethics questions concerning PR will continue to be raised as the use of social media increases.

If Pepsodent had taken the time to gain knowledge about the culture in South Asia, the first step to cross-cultural awareness communication, Pepsodent could have avoided the unsuccessful campaign (and the embarrassment).  On its website, Pepsodent prides itself on having provided oral care to Indonesia for over 30 years. Yet, the company did not take the time initially to research cultural attributes for that area.  The company did learn from its embarrassing campaign, as evidenced by its success as the leading toothpaste brand in most Asian countries.

Pepsodent’s PR blunder emphasizes the need for practitioners to research, research, research, especially before launching a campaign in another country.