This week’s ethics blog is based off an article by USA TODAY. The article speaks on the story about the Ohio kidnappings of the three female victims, who were imprisoned for 10 years but were rescued by the efforts of a man named Charles Ramsey, who lived across the street from the house where the victims were being held hostage. During an interview, Charles described how he was at “McDonalds” and was eating his “McDonalds”, when he heard a scream and noticed a young girl banging on a neighbor’s door. He had gone outside to see what was wrong and the young girl (Amanda Berry) told him that she had been locked up in this house for several years. This discovery led to the police raiding the house and uncovering the rest of the victims, as well as the perpetrators. However, a side story that has arisen from this country-wide event, stems from a “tweet” made by burger giant McDonald’s saying “we are hoping to do what thousands of people have urged it to do: a good deed for the McDonald’s-eating hero who helped free the Cleveland kidnap victims”. In the world of rapid social media, this tweet has seen a controversial blowback to McDonalds, accusing it of “news-jacking”, where they are taking advantage of a situation to help their brand.
McDonald’s strongly insisted that there was no intention to use Mr. Ramsey’s words as an opportunity to strengthen its brand. Spokeswoman Danya Proud said that thousands of people reached out to them expressing their sentiment to McDonald’s to do something for Charles Ramsey. On one hand, some Public Relations experts feel that McDonald’s had no choice but to voice their support, with all the media attention that was surrounding the issue. Others claim that it raised too many eyebrows and opened up a whole can of issues, thinking it was more fitting for a local restaurant chain than a multi-billion dollar corporation. This just shows the vast implications on public perception through social media and that one should really discern what is the right way to respond to the public without leading to serious blowbacks. There could have been a way to reward Mr. Ramsey, without making a huge public commotion about it. Either way, this presents a new wave of ethical issues surrounding social media and public relations of large multi-national companies that are yet to come.
