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Any PR is (not) Good PR

We often hear the phrase, “Any PR is good PR,” but I’m convinced that negative PR will eventually cause a business to lose customers and flounder. I’m guessing the owners of an Arizona bakery feel different. What else could explain the mind-blowingly trenchant behavior of its owners, currently waging war on the social media front with, well, pretty much the entire free world.
After bombastic Arizona bakery owners Samy and Amy Bouzaglo got the boot from Gordon Ramsay on “Kitchen Nightmares,” they decided that sparring with every human being with Internet access would be a good idea.

Gordon Ramsay in 2010.

Gordon Ramsay in 2010. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 
When negative comments about the bakery brats appeared on Reddit, Facebook and Yelp, calling the Bouzaglos rude and arrogant during their reality TV performance, the couple had the brilliant idea to go on the attack, railing against reviewers and going on a rampage against Yelp and Reddit posters, threatening legal action and calling them idiots, morons and every other name in the book.
 
Can you say PR 911?
 
The latest twist from Amy’s Baking Company is a claim that all of their social media was hacked, and that someone else manufactured this social media temper tantrum. Hmm, that’s really not going to pass the smell test when in 2010, the Bouzaglos responded to a bad review on Yelp, telling the poster, “Do US a favor and keep your ugly face and your ugly comments to yourself and go back to the restaurant that you really work at!!” Their credibility already has been torpedoed by their “Kitchen Nightmares” misbehavior, so the “hacked” excuse holds no water. Furthermore, when a loose cannon like Gordon Ramsay thinks you’re too insane to work with, that’s not a good sign.
 
These two gems are so over the top, it makes you wonder if it’s all an act and that the show’s producers created these Frankenstein’s in an effort to boost ratings.
 
Whatever the case, Amy’s Baking Company could hire the best crisis communication team in the country and it probably wouldn’t make much difference. What they need at this point is a time machine, not a PR firm.

 

— Ron Neal, rneal@pondel.com