Feel the farce as Tesco win the PR store wars over Jedi ban
Discrimination is rarely a laughing matter, however, when a self-proclaimed Jedi Knight is ordered to remove his hood in Tesco... well, you can feel the farce is strong in this one!
The media had some fun with the ‘store wars’ that kicked off when Jedi Daniel Jones – or to use his Jedi name Morda Hehol – accused Tesco of discriminating when they asked him to remove his hood or leave the Tesco store in Bangor, North Wales. The fun was made all the more possible by Tesco’s tongue in cheek response.
Now seriously, whatever you think of a religion based on a fictional story, if Daniel Jones, founder of the 500,000 Jedi faith, felt discriminated against then Tesco are in the wrong... that said, they judged the media mood precisely when it came to responding.
The media, on and offline, find the idea of a grown man (who at 23-years-old was not even born when the original Star Wars movies came out) dressing up as a Jedi somewhat risible throughout to downright weird, so it was one of those rare occasions when using humour in your crisis management can work. Not least as this was ultimately about a hoodie getting stroppy!
Mostly any whiff of humour in crisis management runs the risk of being twisted into evidence that you are mocking the victim or failing to take the matter seriously.
However with a deft touch of public relations mastery Tesco said:
"He hasn't been banned. Jedis are very welcome to shop in our stores although we would ask them to remove their hoods.
"Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda and Luke Skywalker all appeared hoodless without ever going over to the Dark Side and we are only aware of the Emperor as one who never removed his hood.
"If Jedi walk around our stores with their hoods on, they'll miss lots of special offers."
That last line really takes the discounted Digestive, managing to throw a bit of promotion into the mix was especially successful.
So, unless you are mocking Star Wars fans for some reason, it is unlikely that you can adopt hilarity as your defence to any crisis. You can however, speak to Morgan PR, crisis management specialists in Newbury, West Berkshire and the Thames Valley!
Incidentally, according to this online Jedi Name Generator, my Jedi name is Morni Johun!