What Steve Harvey's Miss Universe Mistake Teaches Entrepreneurs: How To Turn Your PR Gaffes Into Wins

The following post also appeared as my column today on Forbes.com, available here. 

There are PR lessons galore in the events surrounding last Sunday’s Miss Universe gaffe, when host Steve Harvey mistakenly named Miss Colombia, Ariadna Gutierrez, the winner. After she had received her crown, flowers, hugs and several minutes of wild applause Harvey stepped forward to make the most awkward of statements: "OK, folks, uh—there's—I have to apologize..." The actual winner was Miss Philippines.

Even worse, because Miss Colombia does not speak English fluently, she was forced to stand onstage in confusion while the crown was removed from her head. It was an unmitigated public relations disaster.

But now what? The responses of all parties in the aftermath are providing us with solid lessons for entrepreneurial PR.

To Harvey’s credit, he apologized immediately and accepted full responsibility for the mistake he acknowledged was entirely his. In his haste, however, he misspelled the names of both countries, referring to “Miss Philippians and Miss Columbia” incorrectly. The misspellings made the message appear to disrespect both the contestants and the countries, which added even more fuel to the bad PR fire.

The lesson here: Careful writing and thinking is vital in crisis PR. Mistakes will happen, but when they do, your follow-up response will leave no margin for error.

Other current events reinforce this lesson as well: In data breach incidents, research shows that when organizations leap to announce the breach before gathering and ascertaining the facts, the cost of the damage is ultimately much higher than when an organization takes sufficient time to prepare a thorough and accurate response.

Another PR loser in the Miss Universe story is Donald Trump. Trump sold his ownership in the Miss Universe and Miss USA pageants six months ago in the midst of his own PR crisis surrounding the statements he'd made about people from Mexico. On Twitter he managed to make the current situation about him, once again, by suggesting Harvey's screw-up wouldn't have happened if he were still involved.

"Very sad what happened last night at the Miss Universe Pageant," he tweeted. "I sold it 6 months ago for a record price. This would never have happened!"

Trump was slightly more gracious on the Today Show, acknowledging he believes Steve Harvey is a great guy, and that “mistakes happen,” and “this is live television.”

But the PR lesson in his statements is clear: In the aftermath of a PR disaster, primary concern should go to the people who are hurt or victimized in a situation. Leveraging a hurtful situation for personal attention and gain is especially bad form.

Who wins in the current situation? Miss Colombia, Ariadna Gutierrez, is a PR winner in that she has responded to the situation with grace and tact. Out of that, she has been offered entrance in a Las Vegas pageant free of charge and is slated to appear on an upcoming episode of Steve Harvey’s show. Crisis management expert Glenn Selig noted in an interview with PRnewsonline, “The public feels horrible for her and if she handles this with grace and some humor, this experience will catapult her to a place of stardom she might never have been able to go if she had simply won,” says Selig. “I guarantee you every top booker in the world wants to interview her. She probably has more requests for interviews than the winner.”

In the aftermath, some have considered the Miss Universe pageant a PR winner in the debacle as well, in that a record number of people are now talking about the pageant during an era where pageant viewership has been steadily declining since the mid 1980s. Internet memes are abounding. Some conspiracy theorists are even claiming the entire crisis was a publicity stunt.

In all, however, the lessons for businesses in this misadventure are clear. In any situation that involves live performance, Internet and broadcast viewership, mistakes happen. The PR outcome lies in the way you respond. If you respond badly, or in haste, the problem grows bigger and deeper. If you respond well, however, the outcome of your embarrassment may lead to PR opportunities that exceed your wildest dreams.

Cheryl Snapp Conner is founder of SnappConner PR, developer of the Content University program for helping entrepreneurs and executives learn to excel in thought leadership. Register now for ContentUniversity's first online sessions, beginning January 4, at www.contentuniversity.com.

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