Hot on the heels of the tourism campaign that wasn't (and went viral for all the wrong reasons), and Andy the Octopus' Anti-Advertising Campaign (who's father sadly placed all of Andy's savings on Germany winning the World Cup), the Singaporean PR machine has delivered again, and have once again made the front pages of the World's leading newspapers for all the wrong reasons.
This time it happens to be Singapore Airlines, who's unfortunate tweet that they are "not using Ukrainian airspace" following yesterdays' shooting down of MH17 was seen as slightly insensitive by some. They did later place another post expressing sympathy towards those involved in MH17, but the initial tweet was seen as opportunistic point-scoring and therefor rather insensitive by a large number of people, for obvious reasons.
I'm not sure how many calls the Singapore Airlines call centres were receiving from worried customers at the time, asking which routes SQ flights take over Europe, so maybe the idea of a tweet to clarify their position seemed like the best idea at the time.
But with this most recent example of PR disaster, along with the lamest tourism ad of all time, and anti-gambling ad that backfired badly (and was mocked at many levels worldwide), you have to ask the question... who is in charge of the local PR agencies, and do they have the necessary skills to do their jobs without everything they touch ending up as a major PR disaster?
On a side note, the claim:
The reality (this is SQ321, LHR to SIN departing 14 July, as per Flightradar24):
I think what they really meant was "Singapore Airlines no longer using Ukrainian Airspace" (and who can blame them?)
Anyhow, I've been flying Singapore Airlines for many years now, and intend to continue flying them in the future, including to London return early next month. Let's just hope they can be a little more sensitive, and check some facts, before logging into Twitter next time.
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