How Apple Got Away With Breaking Five Golden PR Rules Over Antennagate

Apple got away with breaking five key PR rules over Antennagate, according to a report in the Harvard Business Review.

Antennagate...or DeathGrip...erupted last year soon after the iPhone 4 was launched when owners found that simply holding the phone shorted the external antenna and made the device lose network signal strength.

Writing in the Review, Professor of Economics at Melbourne Business School, Joshua Gans, says the problem made Apple a laughing stock for several weeks, but soon afterwards the issue was gone.

And how did Apple do this? He says it went against the five golden rules of PR:

1. Apologise and take full responsibility.

In fact, Apple never apologised and certainly didn't take responsibility. Steve Jobs emailed one complaining customer and told him to hold his phone in a different way - or use a case. 

2. Don't create expectations with a media event.

Apple did. It announced it would hold a news event to address the problem. This increased speculation that customers would be given new devices or get their money back and the iPhone 4 withdrawn.

3. Announce the give-away first.


Steve Jobs grudgingly said Apple would give customers free cases at the end of the media event. 

4. Avoid specific comparisons with competitors.

Steve Jobs did the opposite. He showed videos of competitors smartphones suffering the same signal problems. And Apple dedicated a section of its website to graphically pointing out other phones' faults. 

5. Don't air your industry's dark secrets.

See above. Antenna problems are well known in the industry.  Now we all know.

Professor Gans says:

Apple broke all five rules in their management of AntennaGate — indeed, they broke a sixth and actually referred to the issue as "AntennaGate" — and drew the ire of public relations experts. Their handling of the situation worked. The same option was available to any of its competitors and none of them seized the opportunity. They now look like fools.

While I'd like to say that Apple's response to AntennaGate changed public relations forever, BP's handling of the oil spill just a few weeks later tells us that wasn't the case.

A Steve Jobs Masterclass in turning round a crisis.

(Via: Harvard Business Review)