As much as I hate keeping up with current events, one thing
I have learned as a PR major is it is important to be aware of what is going on
in the world around you. The International Federation Association of Football (FIFA)
provides us with a perfect example of why it is necessary to keep up with and accommodate
business strategies to current events.
As you may or may not
know Russia and Crimea have been at odds with each other and there have been numerous protests
against Crimea’s pro-Russian president. In March, Russia annexed Crimea but
tensions still remain between the two countries.
Russia is set to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup and FIFA
recently had to apologize for a video it released of the World Cup logo
portraying Crimea as part of Russia. Even though FIFA issued an apology for the
mishap, it blamed Russian video producers for the mistake. According to an
article on PR Daily the apology statement read:
“Unfortunately the map of Russia selected and used during
the projection by the local service provider escaped our attention and the
short sequence in question has been removed.”
Even though the United States and European Union have asked
FIFA to move the World Cup out of Russia because of political and cultural
tensions FIFA has insisted on having the 2018 games in Russia as planned.
Part of good PR is changing and adapting to what goes on in
the world around you because current events such as conflict between Russia and
Crimea can influence how people view and respond to a company. Given the logo
mishap, the insensitive apology and unwillingness to move the games, I do not
think FIFA is responding to world issues as it should. However, FIFA already
has such a large and faithful following of soccer fans I do not think these
actions will affect its fan base.
Lauren I to say I am awful at current events as well. It is something I should definitely keep up with because if not for you sharing this article I would have never known about this event happening. I am shocked by the oversight FIFA made with the map of Russia. That is something someone in the room should have noticed before sending the product out, especially since I am sure a lot of people looked at that logo before it was unveiled to the public. Moving on, I am surprised that the company then blamed the logo oversight on someone else; that is the number one thing not to do. Like you said, I do not think that people won't watch the world cup because of it, but we can still point, stare and shake our heads at FIFA's poor planning and actions.
ReplyDeleteLauren,
ReplyDeleteI am a fan of soccer and of FIFA's, but I failed to learn about this, so I am grateful for your post. FIFA should own up to the mistake and not blame it on Russian video producers, despite who actually did it. Though, one of the reasons I do like FIFA is they pick locations for the World Cup that may have political or economic issues and try to resolve the issue through soccer. Hosting the World Cup in a place like Russia brings commerce. However, I do believe FIFA sometimes oversteps its boundaries and aims too high in their goals.