Amazon Kindle PR Nightmare...Ploy or Crisis Communication?
Friday, November 12, 2010 at 9:24AM My girl Mary over at Mama Mary Show wrote an interesting post on her thoughts of the Amazon Kindle pedophile situation a post that posed the question: was this a PR ploy set up by Amazon to get them in the news and have their name mentioned over and over right before the Holiday gift buying season?
Since my Facebook status update prompted Mary's post, I thought I would give my 2 cents - from a PR perspective.
While this status update from the other night was very tongue-in-cheek, crisis communication is exhausting, difficult and often a no-win situation. Yes, there is the old PR saying that good or bad, all attention is attention - but from a brand standpoint, I can't see a company ever wanting to be associated with illegal, racist or sexist news.
Let's take the recent Target PR-debacle. Upon the request of some head-honcho, the company made a campaign donation to candidate who has roots not only in anti-LGBT motives, but was associated with people who propagate hate-filled and threatening messages. While the Target PR people JUMPED and acted and apologized, swearing it was a stupid oversight, they have now lost the reputation as being a generally good, clean, non-sleazy company. And while the "boycott" of this mega-store will die down (because let's face it, we all need paper towels and Method cleaning supplies), from now on there will always be a microscope on them. People are watching Target closer than ever, waiting for them to mess up again.
Target's LGBT situation = BAD PR.
Last year a "beta tester" for the iPhone 4 just happened to leave his test model at a bar. A bar where a write for Gizmodo just happened to be having a beer. And while both parties swear that this was a true mistake, even going so far as involving legal teams, this got people talking about the iPhone 4. The media attention that followed was all excitement-based, making people wonder and leaving them guessing about this anticipated next-generation phone. And even though the Apple PR team was freaking out and working 24/7 over it, this attention generated was better than any press release.
Apple iPhone 4 debacle = GREAT PR
And what about BP and the oil spill in the Gulf? I'm sure the majority of Americans had no idea BP owned that rig, or how much oil they supply or who their CEO is...but now we do! So it goes without saying...
BP = HORRIBLE Disastrous PR
Back to the Amazon situation, this is more than a "free speech" issue... this particular book, The Pedophile’s Guide to Love & Pleasure: A Child-Lover’s Code of Conduct, actually describes how to engage in illegal activities and hurt, molest and abuse children. By having this book available for download, Amazon is promoting illegal activities. They have not only garnered the attention of outraged parents, but also the U.S. Justice Department. And regarding the author, Phillip R. Greaves, who writes abut the "idea" is that pedophiles are a misunderstood sexual minority who "love" children and compares the plight of pedophiles to the plight of Jews in World War II...you don't think this guy now has an FBI case-file 3ft deep?
This can NEVER result in good PR.
No matter what they do moving forward, people will always associate Amazon with pedophila. The legalities of the situation are going to take years and millions of dollars to get out of. There is a very good chance that Amazon will face Federal criminal charges for publishing and distributing child pornography. And in the end, the Amazon brand will always be tarnished by this issue.
Public Relations needs to support and protect the brand at all cost. Crisis communications is all about damage control and making sure the bad press leads eventually leads to good press. If this was a case of Amazon leaking a book before its release date, or putting a naked picture up somewhere, those are things a brand can recover from. Being thought of as a company that makes money off products that teach people how to break the law and hurt children will haunt them forever.
What do you think?
Amazon, Kindle, Pedophila in PR thoughts 
Reader Comments (15)
You are right on target.
Awesome, smart post Beth. totally agree.
Well said Beth!
-Mary
First and foremost, just to be completely clear, I find the subject matter of the book to be without any social value and completely morally repugnant. I cannot stress this enough: the subject matter is vile, and I would strongly advocate against anyone purchasing it.
That being said, I think there are some errors in some of your conclusions, which seem to stem from a fundamental misunderstanding of the laws which are salient to this matter.
You state that this book "actually describes how to engage in illegal activities to hurt, molest and abuse children." While this is a watertight moral argument as to why the book is repugnant, it does not actually fit the definition of being criminal. In Brandenburg v. Ohio, the U.S. Supreme court outlined the standards by which speech advocating illegal activities could be prohibited. This type of speech can be prohibited if: 1) it is "directed at inciting or producing imminent lawless action" and 2) "it is likely to incite or produce such action". Both of those criteria have to be demonstrated before even repugnant speech, such as advocated in this book can be prohibited. This is a very important distinction as if the law prohibited any advocacy of illegal acts the following speech would be banned: High Times, The Anarchist's Cookbook, and even "Civil Disobedience" by Henry David Thoreau.
You also state that "there is a very good chance that Amazon will face Federal criminal charges for publishing and distributing child pornography." On face value, this seems like a slam-dunk, no brainer. The problem with this is that this book does not appear to violate any of the criteria for child pornography. Under U.S. Code TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 110 > § 2256, child pornography, as defined, has to be a visual depiction defined as photographs, film, videotapes, pictures, or computer generated images of minors engaged in any of a number of sexual acts (the common sense definition of sexual acts applies here). But it does not include drawings, cartoons, sculptures or paintings. It also does not include words. Unless the book has photographs of minors engaging in any of the defined sexual acts, there are no grounds for charging Amazon with the distribution of child pornography. Once again, this is an important distinction, as if it included words describing minors in hypothetical sexual acts, the following works of fiction or film would be considered "child pornography": "Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov, "The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger, "Deenie" by Judy Blume, "Titanic" directed by James Cameron (Rose is 17), and "American Pie" for the infamous pie scene. And the list could go on and on and on. The law is specific, and we should be grateful, for it allows for works of art that are thought provoking or humorous to exist, even though the subject matter may stray into areas where a "strict" definition of child pornography would clearly find them to be illegal.
The most difficult thing in a free society is to advocate the right of individuals who have opinions which are antithetical to one's own. But remember, we shouldn't put people in jail for what they think or say, but rather what they do. And while advocating such a reprehensible act is morally baseless, thinking about an act, or even advocating an act is not the same as committing an act. For a crime to be committed there has to be an actual victim, not just a hypothetical one. And as much as a part of me understands the motivation to put the author of this book on trial, I also realize that in a free society, we should not jail people for crimes they might commit in the future. For better or worse, we have to wait until they actually commit them first.
In my days as an old fogey PR broad, we used to talk about "key messages," and "brand values." And I can't for any reason, believe Amazon would create a controversy like this based on pedophilia and moral repugnancy.
Leak an excerpt of Angelina Jolie's unauthorized biography?
Sure.
Publicize a book titled "The Pedophile’s Guide to Love & Pleasure: A Child-Lover’s Code of Conduct?"
Maybe it's the new marketing, but I say no.
Sue - Thanks for the insight on the legal aspect of it all... It's such a hard sticky situation. I think my point was more that from a public relations standpoint, creating this to generate attention is brand suicide... and very well end up as a legal battle (the link states that it may be in violation of Marha's law). As for the child pornography, I haven't read the book, my statement was from what I read was in the book.. I could be wrong as to the extent of the images.
Right or wrong morally and legally, a major brand such as Amazon would be insane to wish this upon themselves - esp. going into their biggest season of the year!
Thanks for your thoughts! I hope you're a lawyer! ;-)
I think you're right, Beth. Even though there is a small part of me that thinks it's just too perfect of timing just before the Holidays to have your brand all over the news and on the forefront of everyone's minds, the subject matter is just too horrific and has left a bad taste in everyone's mouths, possibly forever. Awesome post!
Thanks for the inspiration, Mary! :)
A few years ago, Hooters was going to open a store in the Temecula/Murrieta area. It was a huge controversy and many members of the community protested the planning commission and city council meetings that had to do with issuing their permits because of the orange dolphin shorts and tank tops. The funny thing about the whole controversy was the existence of two long established restaurants Texas Lil's and Loosey's. Both places' "uniforms" make Hooters girls look like choir girls and the Lingerie Shows held twice a week are a spectacle that have been bringing in customers for 30 years. None of the protesters discussed the damage to the community that these 2 places had been conducting, but those orange shorts and wings had to go.
Amazon sells a lot of different books. Many of them have disturbing subject matter, for example Anne Rice's story of Cinderella's "happily ever after" which makes this book on pedophilia seem tame in comparison. But the subject of pedophilia has a lot of attention and many groups and organizations that are on constant vigil for anything that's related too it. I find it hard to believe that Amazon's PR group had anything to do with this before it became an issue. The attention span of the American public is myopic and short sighted. We have a 24 hour news cycle that avoids millions of stories of great significance every day but will devote hours to following Lindsay Lohan from her house to the court house and jail or not jail or jail or rehab or whatever else is wasting ridiculous amounts of tax payer dollars.
I find it interesting that we live in a world that would consider the feasibility of using pedophilia as a viable PR stunt. And now I will say my good byes because I have a lunch appointment at Texas Loosey's.
Hi Beth. First, let me congratulate you on such a well written controversial post. I enjoyed Mary's as well. Personally, I'm not looking at this from a legal perspective. Most of us "mommy bloggers" are seeing this from our "mommy perspectives." Cut to the chase of all the legal jaron and BS (that's Amazon's problem to worry about), I'm a mom and seeing anyone write literature (if you want to call it that, it's more like vile crap!) about how to hurt and molest a child is the most repulsive thing imaginable. There are a lot of cruel and unspeakable crimes in this world, but in my eyes, the molestation of innocent children is the ultimate crime.
Is anyone aware that this piece of puke, in a phone interview, maintained that he didn't advocate "penetration"? "You can't do that with a child, but fondling and kissing I don't think is that big of a problem." Are you effin kidding me right now? That's lewd and lascivious behavior. I'm sorry I don't care what Constitutional Amendment protects you. If you think kissing and fondling a child is okay (probably because you've more than likely have commited this crime), and you publicly state that, that should be probable cause enough to have a swarm of FBI agents on your doorstep pounding to get in with a search warrant and confiscate every piece of photographic and writing material you own!
Amazon, even though they maintained they were upholding this person's First Amendment right, it think it is nothing short of dispicable bussiness sense. What about the rights of poor innocent children being prayed upon? What kind of ecommerc world do we live in where sick perverted people are purchasing this how-to book? Maybe closet pedophile's were afraid to commint such heinous acts before, but hey, now they have a step by step manual that instructs them how to hurt a child and get away with it. Where do these businesses draw the line? Who's helping to protect our children? It could be my child, it could be your child. It could be any one of our children who becomes a potential target from the publication and profit of this book. Dispicable!
Give me a break Amazon! Shame on you. You're sorry lame a#@ excuse doesn't hold water with me. I'm not sure I will ever get over this. I don't think I'll be purchasing anything from Amazon any time soon. And I wanted a Kindle for Christmas :(
Sorry about the typos! I didn't see them until after I posted. Please look a past and see the message.
Sorry about the typos! Please look past and see the message.
I doubt that any company would purposefully align themselves with this subject matter on purpose. The Kindle platform allows for self-publishing and there's no way Kindle can police them all. That said, once objectionable material is brought to their attention, I think it's their responsibility to review it.
I am disappointed at how long it took them to make up their minds. Seemed like there was a lot of back-and-forth before they took action. And in the meantime, the book sold way more copies than it should have, and Amazon did make money off of it. I do wonder if they put off the decision for a bit seeing how well it was selling. That would bother me more than anything.
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