Abercrombie & Fitch learn crisis management PR lesson
Are you boycotting Abercrombie & Fitch after discovering how the quest for perfection among its beautiful staff led to it being so beastly to a disabled young woman? Talk about needing crisis management public relations!
Did you realise that as shabbily as the American clothing giant behaved, it did not discriminate against Riam Dean for her disability – she was born without her left forearm and wears a prosthetic limb. Yet to glimpse the recent myriad coverage you would be forgiven for thinking that Abercrombie & Fitch had tried to burn her at the stake for being disfigured and therefore surely must be a witch.
Certainly Abercrombie & Fitch finds itself in the midst of a media storm of negative public relations that it must seem no amount of crisis management public relations can mitigate.
Largely lost amid the uncharacteristic frenzy to report how a disabled (and significantly cute and photogenic and pictured right from The Metro) 22-year-old was treated so badly by Abercrombie & Fitch is the fact that the tribunal did not find she had been discriminated against because of her disability.
The Guardian, in one of the fuller reporting of the case, states:
The ruling stated: "The tribunal is satisfied that the reason for the claimant's dismissal was her breach of the look policy on 4 July in wearing a cardigan … It is clear that this policy was applied and enforced in relation to all members of staff." The tribunal added that Dean's dismissal was a consequence of unlawful harassment arising "not from treating the claimant differently from non-disabled associates [in enforcing the 'look policy'], but in treating her the same in circumstances where it should have made an adjustment".
So they came unstuck for trying to treat her normally, which ironically is the Holy Grail for many people with disabilities. I do not think they will be impressed by the reporting of the events.
The tribunal did find that Abercrombie & Fitch had fallen foul of employment law, hence them losing the case and Dean being awarded £7,800 compensation for injury to her feelings, £1,077 for loss of earnings, and £136 damages. It is significant that the tribunal did not award Dean the full amount of damages she was seeking and The Daily Mail reports how Dean says the damages do not even cover her legal costs, but do represent a moral victory.
Dean’s moral victory is a public relations defeat for the clothing giant. No doubt some customers are shallow enough to still want to be sold the premium brand by impossibly attractive staff, but for others it will provide a ready excuse to shop elsewhere, not least in the challenging economic climate.
Abercrombie & Fitch did try and head off this PR nightmare at the pass of mediation, but significantly Dean raced to tribunal, which does make me question the motivation behind the whole issue.
What now? They are between the rock of cynicism and the hard place of reality. Any PR to say they are not discriminatory will look shallow and calculated against the canvas the media has deftly painted. More important that it simply focus on doing what the store does very well and ensure that there is no scope for a similar incident to spiral out of its control.
For the rest of us it offers a salutary lesson in crisis management public relations. You can be only a little wrong, or even completely right, but for the right story the media and majority of bloggers will merrily sacrifice your reputation.
You need a crisis management public relations strategy in place before the wheel comes off and bounces into the nearest newspaper offices. Know what you will do to protect your reputation if a staff member is hell bent on going to a public employment tribunal, have procedures in place that can help you decide if money can make it go away. Most of all have the professional advice of a visionary PR expert who can see where your reputation is heading... and do something about it!