Apple Keeps their Cool

A couple of months ago, Custom Scoop CEO Chip Griffin posted a nice summary on his blog of an online crisis communications panel held at the New Comm Forum in Las Vegas.

The panelists stressed, among other things, that keeping your cool was one of the key survival strategies when responding to a potentially blossoming crisis. If there were ever an example of that, it would be the level heads on display over at Apple in the last few days, as hundreds of news stories and blog posts exploded late last week following the release of a study showing that iPods can potentially interfere with pacemakers.

Technorati shows Friday as the height of the firestorm, with nearly 250 posts concerning the study in a 24 hours—and radio silence from Apple. My favorite post was the (hilariously spot-on, right down to the fake quotes) phony press release in which Apple attempts to smooth things over by unveiling “the ekgPod, the first transcutaneous combination iPod/Pacemaker.”

Jim Nail wondered on Friday whether Apple would be forced to respond to the blogosphere and MSM chatter, asking, “Will this become the next example of the Influence 2.0 world damaging an iconic brand before it can organize a response?”

My answer to that question? Doesn’t seem like it so far. Apple was wise to remain silent (as of this posting I have been unable to locate any response from the company). After all, the study was conducted by a 17-year old high school student as part of a science project, and was by no means scientific. To respond would have only extended the story and granted total credibility to the study when none was truly warranted.

(Not to impugn the creativity of the student in question, of course. He has the makings of a true PR genius—cashing in on well-known brand to generate worldwide news coverage and blog chatter...about a high school science project. This kid is brilliant! Rather than issuing any response, Apple should try to recruit him to their team before a competitor grabs him.)

My guess is that the Apple PR team chose—wisely—to monitor the chatter and news stories before rushing to issue any defensive statements that may have only added fuel to the fire. By keeping a level head, the story is dying down, and many are pointing out that pretty much any electronic device has the ability to interfere with a pacemaker, not just an iPod. That’s common sense, we don’t need a panicked press release to tell us that. Had the story persisted, perhaps they would’ve moved from actively listening to actively responding. But as it turns out, that probably won’t be necessary.

Well played, Apple, well played.