Chapter 27The Moral Offense
Businesses are all made up of people. That's a strength when it comes to social and branding, but it can also be the most challenging part.
People. There's just no accounting for them.
We believe things and share our ideas. We have hate and preconceptions. Public relations departments were created to craft messages for just that reason. We couldn't just let the owners and employees speak; that would be dangerous…
Well, in the today's world of social media and connectivity, we all have a voice. And some of these voices offend other people's voices. A moral offense is one of these. Even if the treatment didn't happen to you personally, just hearing about it can be enough to change your mind about purchases.
When news spread that the new CEO Brendan Eich of Mozilla had made a donation to support Prop 8, a proposition in California to change law and make gay marriage illegal. It was ruled to be unconstitutional, but supporters of the bill who had made donations greater than $1,000 were made public domain, and the CEO's name was on the list.
Opponents of Eich and his discriminatory stance took to the Internet to demand his resignation. The online dating site OkCupid, went as far as to put this message on its home page:
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