Regarding my earlier post, No Such Thing As Bad Publicity (20.07.09), it seems as though I was a tad premature (no comments, please). I missed this piece of gold when it was originally on the news, but it’s definitely worth a watch even a couple of weeks after airing.
Bad publicity, it seems, can be very harmful indeed. United Airlines eventually offered $3,000 to Dave Carroll as recompense for their baggage handlers ruining his guitar (which they also deigned to fix), but only after having 10% wiped off their share value - around $180million! Dave, from Sons Of Maxwell, is donating the money to charity, and his song has received over 4.6million hits on You Tube, breathing life into his career.
At the risk of being pelted with abuse, United Airlines told CNN that they are using the incident internally to improve customer services. Bad publicity, it seems, can be very bad indeed.
Dave, meanwhile, is planning to release another two songs about the experience. Look out, United!