Entertainment PR Blog by AMP3

Who would have thought a comedic anchor that claims he delivers “fake news” would be someone America would place their wholesome trust on?

In a poll conducted by Time.com, the question was asked following the death of the original most trusted man in America, legendary journalist and former CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite. The evening news contenders – CBS’s Katie Couric, ABC’s Charlie Gibson, NBC’s Brian Williams were all beat out by the wise guy, joke-cracking anchor – Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart, who was voted most trustworthy by 44 percent of the voters. Williams was runner-up with 29 percent, Gibson with 19 percent, and trailing behind was Miss Couric with 7 percent.

While the poll was anything but official, posing as a filler for the site where roughly 9,400 people clicked to vote – the poll raises several questions, mainly America’s lack of trust in mainstream media outlets. But the biggest question is, how real is the “fake news?”

-Sabina for AMP3 Public Relations

The repulsive Domino’s Pizza video that attracted over 900,000 viewers, 760,000 of those within the first 24 hours has now been removed from YouTube due to copyright claims from Kristy Hammonds. For those of you who are not familiar with what has happened allow me to summarize:

Two Domino’s employees, Kristy Hammonds and Michael Setzer in Conover, North Carolina decided that defacing Domino’s food would be a hilarious YouTube prank. This prank has destroyed Domino’s reputation and caused serious financial loss. The Domino’s disaster provides us with a real example of the power of social media. The blogosphere blew up the incident while Domino’s executives hoped it would be contained.

Domino’s reacted swiftly to the incident, issuing arrest warrants to the culprits and later posted the following update on their corporate website:

“During the week of April 14, videos of two of Domino’s Pizza employees appearing inappropriately within one of our franchise restaurants have been circulating online. It is unfortunate that the thoughtless acts of two individuals overshadows the hard work performed by the 125,000 men and women working for Domino’s across the nation and in 60 countries around the world.
Since the videos first surfaced, the two workers have been identified, fired and arrested under a felony warrant. We’d like to thank our customers for their support, we’ve received numerous phone calls, emails and tweets thanking us for our immediate action. A company like ours has one currency, your trust.  And we appreciate your understanding as we work regain the trust of our customers across the world.”

The update goes on to urge readers to follow Domino’s on their official twitter page where they are responding follower’s support and posting updates on how the incident is being addressed. Clearly, Domino’s is using Twitter as a crisis-management tool where they post only positive tweets on the incident and try to steer away from any negative attention.

Patrick Doyle, President of Domino’s USA responds to the Domino’s incident via YouTube video to assure customers that the situation has been handled. The employees have been fired, and the store was shut down and sanitized entirely. Doyle says they are reexamining their hiring practices and have auditors visiting the stores daily to ensure sanitary conditions and quality products. Doyle hopes that with time, Domino’s will gain back the trust of their loyal customers and sincerely apologizes for what happened. Checkout the video below

While Domino’s was smart to respond via YouTube after VP of Communications, Tim McIntyre had originally declined to further comment, Doyle’s video was a bit impersonal. Domino’s needs to be more aggressive with their response to the incident: interviews with employees, managers, and Presidents, discount offers, but most importantly, provide an inside look into how Domino’s is transforming their hiring practices and daily store operations. At a time where people are questioning the industry as a whole, Domino’s needs to become the industry leader and communicate their concern as thoroughly and quickly as they prosecuted the culprits. While the response video was a positive step in the right direction, Domino’s needs to improve their search engine optimization as their corporate video has been viewed far less than the unappetizing culprits’ videos. The power of Social Media is evident in this case. Domino’s should communicate as often as possible how they are reacting to the incident and bring the corporation into a positive light to gain sympathy, trust, and respect.