CUSTOMER SERVICE & PR FAIL: Chick-Fil-A Hates the Gays

Unless you’ve been living under a pile of boulders squirreled away in some dank Appalachian Mountain cave, you’ve no doubt heard all the hubbub about fast food chicken giant Chick-Fil-A’s mega blunder of a PR snafu.
Not to retread the same stomped over ground yet one more time, but by way of setting the scene, here’s the deal:
Chick-Fil-a President Dan Cathy (you know the old saying: Never trust a man with two first names, especial if one of them is girl’s name and he’s bashing gays?) stated in an interview with the Baptist Press that he is “guilty as charged” when it comes to his opposition to gay marriage, further stating that Chick-Fil-A has made massive donation to organizations actively campaigning against gay marriage.
And the results? a Hellacious Media Sh*t storm is unleashed – raining old school sized Lincoln Continental hail.

Media Mega Maelstrom Highlights:

1. Gay marriage advocates (gay and straight alike) storm the interweb’s digital byway detonating with critical mass in the social media / blogsphere, not to mention responding to every media outlet on the surface of planet Earth seeking a quote – which every media outlet of the face of planet Earth was salivating for – trumpeting their angy disdain for Chick-Fil-A’s position of discrimination and calling for a general Chick-Fil-A boycott.
2. The Jim Henson Company bails out of a partnership to produce Chick-Fil-A happy meal toys – public chastising the Chick’s Chicken Impresario, and donating the money the Henson Company already earned from the ill-fated project to gay rights advocacy group GLAAD.
3. Boston Mayor, Tom Menino, tells Chick-Fil-A to keep on truckin’ cuz “we the People” of Boston aren’t interested in discriminatory chicken joints setting up show in Beantown – no matter how tasty their spicy chicken sandwich’s may be.
4. A backlash to the backlash ensues (God I love the internet!), leading Christians and “traditional marriage” advocates (whatever that uncanny phrase happens to mean!?!) to Chick-Fil-A defense in hot hurry,  supporting their 1st amendment right to free speech. In a totally botched stinker of a pathetic PR counterattack, an as yet identified boob ensconced somewhere Chick-Fil-A’s clearly out of touch marketing and communications department (as evidenced by their belief that giving interview to the Baptist Press is going to work out well) creates a fake Facebook account for teenage girl, using a low budget stock photo and writing in the voice no one with 12 ½ functioning brain cells would attribute to a teenage girl, posts Pro-Chick-Fil-A – antigay comments on Chick-Fil-A’s Facebook – three hours after the creating “her” profile. Chick-Fil-A’s PR head drops dead of a massive coronary. And finally Chick-Fil-A launches “Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day” to record sales.

Wow! What a whack-yourself-in-the-face with a lead pipe blunderbuss! As a marketing professional with only a cursory PR background, I cannot begin to tell what a skull cracracking’y boneheaded move this chalks up to (oh let me count the ways…). Hey Sally…I mean Cathy: insert foot in mouth, go deeper – pleeeeeze!
But in the vein of our #Aurora is Trending FAIL, and borrowing President Obama’s favorite phrase, Chick-Fil-A has served up another juicy “teachable moment,” an especially poignant lesson in the world of small business marketing.

Freedom of Speech…Just Watch What You Say

The First Amendment to the Constitution guarantees our right to freedom of speech. You, me, the Arch Bishop of New York, your uncle Steve, Charlie Manson and the President of Chick-Fil-A all have the right to say whatever we want –assuming we’re not libeling or slandering an innocent party.
As small business (or any size business) owner, however, any public statements made by you or your representatives affect public perception, impact sales and ultimately hold the power to make or break your business. Publicly espousing discrimination, regardless of whether or not you have the legally protected right to your “say so,” is not smart business.
You’ve not only closed the door on the group you’re discriminating against – you‘ve also lost all those sympathetic to that group.
It’s just plain dumb. Does Chick – Fil – A honestly not want to take money from gay people? I seriously doubt it. Paying customers – regardless of their sexual orientation – are paying customers. This is a Business 101 kind of principle.
Lesson learned: Running a business has nothing to do with political or religious commentary – it’s about reaching customers and converting them into sales, regardless of who they love or what God the worship (or don’t worship). Leave that kinda stuff to your priest, preacher, Rabbi or love guru.

Discrimination is Discrimination – Regardless of the Justification

Last time I consulted with the local police, reviewed the laws of the land, or curled up with a nice cup of spearmint tea and my well-worn copy of the Constitution of the United States of America, I managed to reason out – to the best of my ability – it’s not illegal to be gay.
If you’re religion apposes homosexuality, fine: don’t be gay. Beyond that, it’s time to live and let live, because I also happened to run across a section of the constitution defining a separation between church and state.
Furthermore, justifying discrimination against gay people by equating homosexuality to murder, rape, child molestation and the like – a la arguments such as: “Well, we wouldn’t server murders and child molesters – isn’t that discrimination – where do we draw the line?” is not only ridiculously absurd, it’s  insulting and disgusting.
Murder and rape are not consensual activates engaged in by consenting adults in private – period.  Your religious beliefs do not make gay people sick and twisted criminals. Your religious views belong to you and the rest of the followers of your faith, and that’s it, everyone else lives the life the way the see fit. Gay people happen to have  different views and values – it’s no different than if the they were a muslin, Buddhist, atheist or howled at the moon and worshiped the lightning bugs that swarm around their bedroom window in the summer months – and I don’t see Chick-Fil-A publicly opposing any of those groups.
Lesson learned: Discrimination is discrimination – it’s worth repeating. If you publicly single out a group as not worthy of your business – expect a backlash of the worst kind – which you so richly deserved. And this does not fall into the “all publicity is good publicity” category. This is more along the lines of 50 years ago it was acceptable to discriminate against black people, and those who did so ended up on the wrong side of history.

Good Business Should Follow the Same Rules as Polite Society

There’s an old adage about how conducting yourself in “Polite Society,” which states you should avoid discussing: politics, religion, sex or money. And the same goes for running your business – it boils down to a matter of good business practice.
As a business person, if a particular group is not harming you or anyone else, why would you call them out, casting them in a negative light?
In the case of Chick-Fil-A, what does a selling chicken sandwich have to do with whether or not gay people get married? Publicly espousing this position makes absolutely no sense from a good business or smart marketing standpoint. If the founder of Chick-Fil-A wants to donate money as a private citizen to anti-gay marriage lobbies, he certainly has every right to do whatever his conscious dictates. By why in God’s name would he make a public spectacle of his private perspective while representing his company in a professional capacity? Once again, the rules of “polite society” should apply. Or as my mom always says: “if you don’t have anything nice to say – don’t say anything at all.”
Lesson learned: A good ( and successful) business follows the rules of “polite society.”

An Appreciation Day is Just ONE DAY

What at about ten days later or ten months later  or ten years later, when gay marriage is commonplace and Chick-Fil-A is forever known as the fast food chicken joint that hates gays?
Take a step back for a moment and consider that when the Supreme Court ruled laws prohibiting interracial marriage were unconstitutional – “public opinion” was overwhelming opposed to interracial marriage, and plenty of religious arguments were presented as “evidence” supporting an continued interracial marriage ban.
Lesson Learned: One day of bountiful success does not ensure your future – before shooting yourself in the foot (with both barrels!) in pursuit of a rash course of action – consider carefully which side of history you want to end up on.

Here’s a Sound Business Call to Action: Start Your Own Fast Food Chicken Joint!

If the fast food chicken sandwich market is so wide open that the number one player in the marketplace can risk a major sales hit be taking an arbitrary religious stand, there’s got to be room for a motivated upstart entrepreneur to step in and make a total killing slipping into the number two spot.
For all you entrepreneurs out their seeking a new fast food opportunity – GO TO IT!
If you like this – check out another recent epic marketing FAIL: #Aurora is trending!