PR Disaster, what would you do?

I had an interest in the Lapland Christmas fiasco http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/dorset/7758112.stm that has been widely reported in the UK media because of the close proximity of the venue to where I live. I first heard of the story on the local radio on Tuesday morning and then it was very quickly all over the national media.

The PR machine seemed to work well initially if this story is anything to go by http://www.thisisdorset.co.uk/stourandavon/news/Winter-break-Matchams-noise/article-405979-detail/article.html but the reality was very very different and the trading standards office has received numerous complaints.

As a PR professional I don't know what I would have recommended to the company as a response, but it certainly would not have been to come out fighting. That is what they appear to have done.

The first time I heard their representative on the radio was last night when he was condemning the behaviour of some of the parents for being physically and verbally abusive to the staff, without any sort of apology for the shattered dreams and expectation of hundreds of kids. It's true that there is never any excuse for violence, especially towards staff who are not responsible for the sins of their management. But their speaker was partly responsible and he should have been saying something to address the issues that have been raised.

I have seen reports this morning that have expanded on his comments, stating they have delivered what they said they would. This is clearly not the case if you look at the photographs that visitors have sent in. If you were paying £1 per ticket you have a certain level of expectation. When you are paying £25 per ticket you have another level of expectation altogether. To put it into perspective, a ticket for Paultons Park http://www.paultonspark.co.uk, a local amusement park are £16 per person (including Santa's wonderland). There is no comparison in the level of entertainment being offered.

I would be very interested to hear how you think the event organisers should have reacted such that they go some way to restoring their reputation, bearing in mind that they do regularly stage different events there.

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