Illustration from a Bloomberg Businessweek article, "United Airlines' Quest to Be Less Awful," a full year prior to the latest PR crisis.
Millions around the world were astounded by the viral video showing a United Airlines passenger being injured while forcibly dragged off an overbooked flight. What was equally astounding to PR observers was the tone deaf response of the airline that has described itself for more than half a century as the "friendly skies."
"Had United shown compassion and intent to make things right, they could have come out of this at the very least looking like an airline that cares," said crisis PR expert Ed Zitron. "Instead they've just made it even worse." Courtesy CNN Money.