Dominos YouTube PR Disaster

A few days ago, two teenagers who were workingat a Dominos pizza chain decided that they would make a video and upload it to YouTube.  The motivation behind this appears to be simply boredom.  So what's the big deal?  Teenagers post up videos on YouTube all the time, after all.  Well the difference in this case is that the video depicted the two teens dressed in full Dominos uniform, doing stomach-wrenching acts to food that was seemingly going to be sold to customers.  Sticking cheese up their noses and then placing in on a sandwich was just one example of the two teen's antics.  Dominos managed to act relatively quickly and pulled the video down in less than two days.  But by then the damage had been done.  The video had received close to one million hits by then, so it's safe to say that the damage had been done.  On top of this, it would seem that some viewers of the original video downloaded it off of YouTube and have since posted it back up.  In other words, the pizza clip is now impossible to squash.  But what does this mean for Dominos, or any company for that matter?  I mean, its not like the company did anything wrong themselves.  This could have happened to any company and this type of behavior is not unheard of in the kitchens of restaurants.  The difference now is that todays disgruntled employees now have the power to share their disgusting acts with the whole world instantly, and thus doing significant damage to the company and it's reputation.  This is a tough situation to deal with for any organization.  My advice to Dominos and pretty much any other organization is to keep a close and constant eye on what is being carried out in you name on the web.  The only other thing they could do is press charges against the offenders so as to make and example of them (Dominos is looking at this option) .  This will at least act as something of a deterrent.  Other than that, there's not much else to do.  There will always be unhappy employees and many of them will have video cameras.  Just hope their not targeting you with them.

China takes up Pakistan's example

            In a previous blog post, I wrote about Youtube removing content deemed by some to be offensive to the Islamic faith.  They did this in response to Pakistan placing a nation wide ban on the site.  Well since then, Chinese officials have done the exact same thing (obviously this means that the Chinese government reads my blog).  The Youtube ban, which bars the country’s internet service providers (ISPs) from granting users access to the site, is in response to video’s posted of many Tibetan protests that have taken place over the years.  This puts Youtube in a terrible position.  First of all, if Youtube again censors its content due to political pressure, I have no doubt that other countries will follow suit.  The last thing Youtube wants is for countries banning access to become a trend.  Another problem lies in the motives behind the ban.  While China’s and Pakistan's ban may appear to be the same issue, this actually isn’t the case.  Pakistan's ban, and Youtube’s decision to meet their demands, was centered the fact that the videos were clearly examples of religious intolerance.  Many of the videos China is objecting to are of Chinese police using what many would define as unnecessary, even brutal force against Buddhist monks, Tibetans in exiles, and others participating in the demonstrations.  The difference here is that with the Pakistan situation, Youtube was acting against intolerance.  China, however, is the oppressor in this situation.  Many people, including myself, would see the removal of the Chinese protest videos as assisting China’s attempt to cover-up human rights violations (See: “Tiananmen Square Massacre”). 

Video Example:

Youtube finds itself in a tough PR situation.  If they ignore the demands of the Chinese government and leave the content up, they will most likely lose all patronage from the Chinese people.  This is no small issue since China makes up a relatively large piece of those who visit the site.  On the flip side, if the site does cave and remove the content, it could put them in an even worse position.  There is no doubt that numerous people around the world, myself included, would view this as Youtube not only turning a blind eye to human rights violations by actively censoring others speaking out against them.  Not to mention that doing so would go against Youtube’s core philosophy of free expression.  

So what’s a video-sharing site to do?  Here's what I think.  Taking down the content the Chinese government is objecting to would be a BAD move on YouTube's part.  A line in the sand needs to be drawn to prevent countries, or any group/organization for that matter, from trying to bully YouTube into censorship.  This is a good place to dig in and refuse to remove the content.  Unfortunately, I believe that this powerful tool for free speech and self-expression may be reduced to nothing more than a way to watch clips of skateboard accidents, sneezing pandas and “lol cats” while on your lunch break.

Chapter 1 Citizen Marketers - My favorite firecracker

The summer before last, my roomate and I became obsessed with a video on Youtube known as "Drama Chipmunk".  This video is the definition of a firecracker.  The video depicted a prairie dog (not a chipmunk) giving a weird look to the camera, set to some very dramatic music.  I'm not really sure why the video was so funny, but believe me, it was.  Almost overnight, the video was everywhere.  I saw it posted on my friend's facebook walls, all over video sharing sites like youtube, it was even played on television a few times.  In addition to all of this, dozens of remakes and parodies of the drama chipmunk started popping up all over the place.  It was strange how popular the drama chipmunk became.  Why did this particular video succeed where so many others failed to become viral?  What makes a firecracker a firecracker?