Entrepreneur Magazine has an interesting piece about how a company should respond to controversy like abortion.
They write:
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What’s a company to do when it finds itself in the crosshairs of a controversy that it did absolutely nothing to court?
That is a question that Dunkin’ Donuts is now pondering after Clickhole — a parody site owned by The Onion that sends up viral news destinations like Buzzfeed and Upworthy — posted an outlandish story yesterday stating that the donut chain was going to perform an abortion in one of its 8,000 locations nationwide.
“We feel strongly about women’s health and want to stand in solidarity with the millions of women across the country who deserve the right to choose,” wrote Clickhole, citing a satirical press release from the company. “In addition, the patient will receive a free egg and cheese sandwich and a medium coffee.”
Funny enough. But not only has the post dragged Dunkin’ Donuts into a polarizing conversation about reproductive rights, it also asked readers to share their thoughts on Twitter using the hashtag #DunkinAbortion.
Anyone with any sense would have known this was a spoof – and according to Entrepreneur’s expert when a company faces a situation like DunkinAbortion, “it’s important to stay calm, delay for long enough to step away from the firestorm, and then respond in as truthful a matter as possible.”
Good advice. And apparently that is exactly what Dunkin Donuts did. Michelle King, senior director of global public relations for Dunkin’ Brands Group, told Entrepreneur, “From what we can tell, Clickhole is a parody site and not intended to be taken seriously and there is no truth to this article.”
And then DD also tweeted this:
Yet, what Entrepreneur failed to say is why this would be an “issue” to being with. I mean, are we not told over and over how great abortion is?
Tweeter Stacey Burns who works at RH Reality Check, knows how to correctly spin a story that would normally bring a company bad press.
RH Reality Check is a pro-abortion blog which does a fairly good job at spinning for abortion. Which is why Burns’ tweets might have sounded so familiar:
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People are blowing this whole #DunkinAbortion thing out of proportion. Only 3% of @DunkinDonuts’ pastries are abortions.
WHY ISN’T @DunkinDonuts GIVING AWAY MAMMOGRAMS 🍩🍩🍩 #DunkinAbortion
Unlike Burns, Katie Yoder over at NewsBusters stated that the Onion owned company was not funny in putting Dunkin Donuts into such a position.
Abortion is the ruthless taking of the life of an innocent child in the womb.
And, I agree with Yoder, it isn’t something to joke about.
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