So the PR daily came out with the top five media disasters of April and I’m not sure how I missed the number one. Although the other four were worthy of mentioning, number one was the best.
The founder of GoDaddy.com, Bob Parsons, put out a video of his success in killing an elephant while on vacation in Africa. He posed, with his gun, over the elephant and put the video to AC/DC’s “Hell’s Bells.” Obviously, this pissed off PETA and a lot of customers. Instead of just taking it off the Internet, Parsons made the situation worse by supposedly threatening to sue bloggers who posted his video. Clearly Parsons wouldn’t win since he placed the video online first.
It’s obvious that Mr. Parsons created a perfect PR disaster for himself single-handedly. Why would a CEO of a company release a video of himself killing an animal that is loved by millions? Understandable that he was proud, but come on; does everyone have to know about it?
Anyone in the public eye needs to know that they should watch their actions more than most. Even private actions can hurt their image and cause damage to their company or reputation. I’m not sure what Mr. Parson’s was really thinking but it sounds like he needs to hire a publicist to take care of what he says, does, and what he puts on the web.
Hopefully Bob Parsons has learned his lesson and stays away from Africa for a while. Maybe he will take my advice and hire a publicist.
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