{"id":675,"date":"2013-06-03T23:23:35","date_gmt":"2013-06-03T23:23:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/?p=675"},"modified":"2022-04-26T16:01:22","modified_gmt":"2022-04-26T16:01:22","slug":"carnival-cruises-dont-look-at-me-blame-the-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/carnival-cruises-dont-look-at-me-blame-the-agency\/","title":{"rendered":"Carnival Cruises: Don\u2019t Look at Me\u2026 Blame the Agency!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s been a difficult few years for Carnival Cruise Line. Earlier this year, one of its ships, Triumph, got stranded at sea and eventually towed back to port by four tug boats.\u00a0 Passengers were quick to share horror stories about their \u201cpoop cruise\u201d \u2013 five days on a boat without electricity, running water, or working toilets \u2013 \u00a0a Crisis Public Relations nightmare! \u00a0Last year, Carnival\u2019s Costa Concordia ran aground off of Italy, killing 32 passengers. Its Captain \u201ctripped and fell into a lifeboat\u201d that seemingly rowed itself safely to shore while 4,228 passengers were left to fend for themselves. \u00a0And just a month later, the Carnival-owned Costa Allegra\u2019s engine caught fire, lost power and \u201cwas set adrift in pirate-infested waters in the Indian Ocean.\u201d (CNN)<u><\/u><u><\/u><\/p>\n<p>Actions to placate passengers and assume control of the company\u2019s reputation have been ineffective. Of the Triumph, efforts were everything but triumphant. \u00a0The CEO apologized, both at a company organized press conference as well over the ship\u2019s PA system as filthy, weary passengers deboarded. \u00a0Surely at the time, this was not music to their ears \u2013 not the best\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/practice\/travelpublicrelations.cfm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/practice\/travelpublicrelations.cfm&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1651072451680000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0qcm0HGX-vO5j-x4UAzaCg\">travel pr<\/a>\u00a0either. \u00a0Many of these same passengers then experienced a second stranding by Carnival when the cruise line-hired buses in which they were riding broke down somewhere between Mobile, Alabama and New Orleans. If it didn\u2019t actually happen, we\u2019d think this was a scene out of the latest Zach Galifianakis movie.\u00a0Ultimately, \u00a0traumatized passengers were offered only a refund and $500 compensation, less than cost of the cruise itself. \u00a0\u00a0As for the tragedy of the Costa Concordia, last week, it was announced that the Captain will \u00a0be tried for Manslaughter and faces up to 20 years in prison.\u00a0 No refund or gift certificate can ever heal those wounds, especially for the families of those who died.<u><\/u><u><\/u><\/p>\n<p>As each of these disasters has unfolded, we communications professionals have been awaiting \u00a0some definitive course of action from Carnival that will help it right its literal and proverbial ship. So, in the wake of all of these unfortunate circumstances, and wishy-washy responses, what\u2019s been their most recent step taken towards rectifying matters and regaining control? \u00a0This week, they fired their advertising agency.\u00a0 Well, they kinda fired them because Carnival didn\u2019t even take the definitive step of immediate termination. They called for an agency review but did not invite their current agency\u2019s participation. \u00a0This is troubling because it\u2019s more of the same wishy-washy that\u2019s not helped Carnival yet.<u><\/u><u><\/u><\/p>\n<p>More troubling, however, is this question:\u00a0 Do Carnival executives honestly believe that new advertising is their silver bullet?\u00a0 That paid media, whether clever or contrite, will generate a resurgence in business and fill Lido decks to capacity like some bygone era? \u00a0In an age when people\u2019s trust in advertising is rapidly declining and the public craves authenticity from the brands they support, it seems na\u00efve to believe winning \u00a0back cruisers is in the slick visual or digital campaign.<u><\/u><u><\/u><\/p>\n<p>Instead, many a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/practice\/travelpublicrelations.cfm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/practice\/travelpublicrelations.cfm&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1651072451680000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0qcm0HGX-vO5j-x4UAzaCg\">travel PR agency<\/a>\u00a0would argue that this is the time for Carnival to activate an aggressive media relations campaign \u2014 one that concedes difficult truths about how the Company has failed (beyond the obvious sinkings, fires, strandings and deaths), reveals detailed plans for improvement, includes a timeline of activation and accountability, and shares other strategies highlighting how the brand intends to earn back the public\u2019s trust beyond firesaled prices (no pun intended).<u><\/u><u><\/u><\/p>\n<p>The advertising industry as well seems to be drinking some crazy Kool-Aid.\u00a0 Its trades are pointing out that Carnival only spent $22 million on advertising in 2012, down from $38 million in 2011. And, they\u2019re indicating that Carnival\u2019s soon-to-be fired ad agency is taking the hit for the lack of spending. \u00a0But as someone who deals in EARNED media rather than paid media, I\u2019m astonished by the budget that has been devoted to a failed campaign and the insinuation that \u201cif only they\u2019d spent more, Carnival would be okay!\u201d<u><\/u><u><\/u><\/p>\n<p>First of all, I couldn\u2019t spend $22 million on a\u00a0media relations campaign\u00a0if I tried. Secondly, \u00a0no amount of millions can dupe a savvy public into believing that a company\u2019s infrastructure problems \u2013 staffing and equipment maintenance, in the instances above \u2013 \u00a0are solved upon the launch and propagation of cool ad spots and viral campaigns that completely ignore the problems that caused them.<u><\/u><u><\/u><\/p>\n<p>Until the fundamental issues of quality control and personnel are fully addressed within Carnival, no creative image spots can generate the resurgence of business that can only, slowly rebuild from ongoing demonstrations of accountability and authenticity \u2014 values best communicated through earned media rather than pay for plays.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s been a difficult few years for Carnival Cruise Line. Earlier this year, one of its ships, Triumph, got stranded at sea and eventually towed back to port by four &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":678,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,63,131],"tags":[50,116],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\r\n<title>Cruise PR \u2013 Travel PR Agency \u2013 Carnival Cruise PR<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"5W PR on the Carnival Cruise public relations disaster and some suggestions on how to avoid damaging the company&#039;s reputation even further\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/carnival-cruises-dont-look-at-me-blame-the-agency\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cruise PR \u2013 Travel PR Agency \u2013 Carnival Cruise PR\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"5W PR on the Carnival Cruise public relations disaster and some suggestions on how to avoid damaging the company&#039;s reputation even further\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/carnival-cruises-dont-look-at-me-blame-the-agency\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Public Relations Blog | 5W PR Agency | PR Firm\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/5WPublicRelations\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-06-03T23:23:35+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-04-26T16:01:22+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/5wpr-carnival-agency.jpg\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"500\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"373\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"5W Digital Marketing Team\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"5W Digital Marketing Team\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/carnival-cruises-dont-look-at-me-blame-the-agency\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/carnival-cruises-dont-look-at-me-blame-the-agency\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"5W Digital Marketing Team\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/#\/schema\/person\/70a409d1958439d2ca263cc9b3e5e1c1\"},\"headline\":\"Carnival Cruises: Don\u2019t Look at Me\u2026 Blame the Agency!\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-06-03T23:23:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-26T16:01:22+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/carnival-cruises-dont-look-at-me-blame-the-agency\/\"},\"wordCount\":779,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/carnival-cruises-dont-look-at-me-blame-the-agency\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/5wpr-carnival-agency.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"5wpr\",\"agency\"],\"articleSection\":[\"5WPR News\",\"Crisis Communications\",\"Crisis PR\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/carnival-cruises-dont-look-at-me-blame-the-agency\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/carnival-cruises-dont-look-at-me-blame-the-agency\/\",\"name\":\"Cruise PR \u2013 Travel PR Agency \u2013 Carnival Cruise PR\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/carnival-cruises-dont-look-at-me-blame-the-agency\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/carnival-cruises-dont-look-at-me-blame-the-agency\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/5wpr-carnival-agency.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-06-03T23:23:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-26T16:01:22+00:00\",\"description\":\"5W PR on the Carnival Cruise public relations disaster and some suggestions on how to avoid damaging the company's reputation even further\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/carnival-cruises-dont-look-at-me-blame-the-agency\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/carnival-cruises-dont-look-at-me-blame-the-agency\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/5wpr-carnival-agency.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/5wpr-carnival-agency.jpg\",\"width\":500,\"height\":373,\"caption\":\"5wpr dont blame agency\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/\",\"name\":\"Public Relations Blog | 5W PR Agency | PR Firm\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/#organization\",\"name\":\"5W Public Relations Firm\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/5W-logo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/5W-logo.jpg\",\"width\":160,\"height\":96,\"caption\":\"5W Public Relations Firm\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/5WPublicRelations\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/5w_pr\",\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/5wpr\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/5w-public-relations\",\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/5wpr\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/5WPRSpeakers\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/#\/schema\/person\/70a409d1958439d2ca263cc9b3e5e1c1\",\"name\":\"5W Digital Marketing Team\"}]}<\/script>\r\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Cruise PR \u2013 Travel PR Agency \u2013 Carnival Cruise PR","description":"5W PR on the Carnival Cruise public relations disaster and some suggestions on how to avoid damaging the company's reputation even further","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/carnival-cruises-dont-look-at-me-blame-the-agency\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Cruise PR \u2013 Travel PR Agency \u2013 Carnival Cruise PR","og_description":"5W PR on the Carnival Cruise public relations disaster and some suggestions on how to avoid damaging the company's reputation even further","og_url":"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/carnival-cruises-dont-look-at-me-blame-the-agency\/","og_site_name":"Public Relations Blog | 5W PR Agency | PR Firm","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/5WPublicRelations","article_published_time":"2013-06-03T23:23:35+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-04-26T16:01:22+00:00","og_image":[{"width":500,"height":373,"url":"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/5wpr-carnival-agency.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"5W Digital Marketing Team","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"5W Digital Marketing Team","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/carnival-cruises-dont-look-at-me-blame-the-agency\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/carnival-cruises-dont-look-at-me-blame-the-agency\/"},"author":{"name":"5W Digital Marketing Team","@id":"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/#\/schema\/person\/70a409d1958439d2ca263cc9b3e5e1c1"},"headline":"Carnival Cruises: Don\u2019t Look at Me\u2026 Blame the Agency!","datePublished":"2013-06-03T23:23:35+00:00","dateModified":"2022-04-26T16:01:22+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/carnival-cruises-dont-look-at-me-blame-the-agency\/"},"wordCount":779,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/carnival-cruises-dont-look-at-me-blame-the-agency\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/5wpr-carnival-agency.jpg","keywords":["5wpr","agency"],"articleSection":["5WPR News","Crisis Communications","Crisis PR"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/carnival-cruises-dont-look-at-me-blame-the-agency\/","url":"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/carnival-cruises-dont-look-at-me-blame-the-agency\/","name":"Cruise PR \u2013 Travel PR Agency \u2013 Carnival Cruise PR","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/carnival-cruises-dont-look-at-me-blame-the-agency\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/carnival-cruises-dont-look-at-me-blame-the-agency\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/5wpr-carnival-agency.jpg","datePublished":"2013-06-03T23:23:35+00:00","dateModified":"2022-04-26T16:01:22+00:00","description":"5W PR on the Carnival Cruise public relations disaster and some suggestions on how to avoid damaging the company's reputation even further","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/carnival-cruises-dont-look-at-me-blame-the-agency\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/carnival-cruises-dont-look-at-me-blame-the-agency\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/5wpr-carnival-agency.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/5wpr-carnival-agency.jpg","width":500,"height":373,"caption":"5wpr dont blame agency"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/","name":"Public Relations Blog | 5W PR Agency | PR Firm","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/#organization","name":"5W Public Relations Firm","url":"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/5W-logo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/5W-logo.jpg","width":160,"height":96,"caption":"5W Public Relations Firm"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/5WPublicRelations","https:\/\/x.com\/5w_pr","https:\/\/instagram.com\/5wpr\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/5w-public-relations","https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/5wpr\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/5WPRSpeakers"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/#\/schema\/person\/70a409d1958439d2ca263cc9b3e5e1c1","name":"5W Digital Marketing Team"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.5wpr.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}