There is a need for negative PR in our modern world!
In our modern world large organisations ride roughshod over consumers and small organisations, they can do this because they are either not accountable due to the nature and sheer size of the corporation, not accountable because the protocol set in place to publicly show a ‘perceived’ accountability (such as the financial ombudsman) is nothing more than a sham, or that they can use the legal system to bully their way through criticism and wrong doing.
There some great examples of this in action with large organisations, accountability forces companies to do the right thing but in today’s world they have cleverly put in place an almost impenetrable wall of protocol and red tape, of frustrating procedures and lawyers who are willing to crush the individual because that is what they are paid to do.
Time to Bite Back
The Corporate Mentality
Many large organisations use all of the above to make sure they can carry on at will without having to consider the real right and wrong of their actions.
It has come to be standard practice, one look at everything from MP’s to Financial institutions to police forces and the large utility companies, in every sector there is a massive catalogue of public discontent where consumers, people and small businesses are screwed by the corporation mentality.
Fighting Back – The Right Option
Well there is a way to fight back, all of the above industry types (and there are many more) suffer from bad publicity, bad PR is damaging to reputations, it ends careers, it forces action when it reaches the right pitch and it scares companies into action to rectify things that are unfair.
Large corporations can have managers and directors hiding behind the corporate curtain and I will show you how to pull the curtain back and expose them, this single act will get more resolution that a hundred letters and MP visits because you are hurting the machine publicly.
Case Studies for Corporate Justice
I have published just a few case studies on my blog some are personal and some have been brought to me and it was all started after my family was a victim of the corporate process used by Essex Police.
Case Study 1 – Mesh Computers
If we take just three cameo’s you have the computer giant Mesh who ripped people off by taking money for computer products they could not deliver and then holding on to that money for weeks. I had two or three people contact me after I did a little forum posting to see who else had this experience after a lady friend of mine came to me in a real state because Mesh had all her Christmas money that was paid for her children’s Christmas presents.
My research showed me she was not alone and I took up the crusade as if I were her because she could not begin to do what I am able to do. Her letters and phone calls left her frustrated with Christmas just 8 days away.
Mesh Computers and the Brand Name
This was a really simple process, I lobbied the computer forums and found a few more people who had suffered, I then let them know there was an outlet for their frustration, a voice, I then took my fight online and three weeks later I owned Mesh through Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Google and all search engines of note where at the time even the brand search – Mesh, showed the adverse publicity. The brand was hurt, I named names, people squirmed and I got resolution for those people who had been treated unfairly by the company.
In fact the clamour about Mesh reached such proportions that I could drip feed into Google news every day and get immediate responses from all manner of people.
Mesh capitulated and hurried the money back to those they took it from and in the end Mesh went bust due to their abysmal performance but not before my group had their refunds.
Case Study 2 – The Barn Brasserie
Next we have a smaller enterprise but one that is run by rich people, here we had a company that had a doctrine of treating young vulnerable people very badly, a business model that sacked people on a whim and where young hard working people were not paid a proper wage and were continually cheated from their meagre earnings.
The Barn Brasserie was one of those high reputation restaurants full of snobbery and pomp but little did the diners know what was going on behind the scenes, this time I had a family member who worked there for just a few months, this family member was treated very badly by senior management and when I went in and talked to other members of junior staff they were all complaining.
Here we are talking about school leavers, young people going into their first job, single mums trying to earn extra money, these people were treated terribly and then they were not paid for the hours they worked, those that complained were sacked.
I took the case up, used the same techniques and hammered them through Google, Twitter, Facebook and other social media channels.
The Barn Brasserie – The Inland Revenue – The BBC – Local Press
This time it was the inland revenue that took an interest, so did local media, so did the BBC, before I knew it ex members of staff were being contacted by HMRC and guess what, they all got their money back, even those who had left and had been gone for some time, people who had been having to work in a luxury restaurant and almost HALF the minimum wage!
Justice For The Vulnerable
Yes justice was done and the vulnerable people that had been exploited were compensated and The Barn Brasserie had to pay up!
Even now a brand search for – The Barn Brasserie shows the negative publicity and that is years on!
Case Study 3 – Capstone Mortgages
This was a real scam, Capstone Mortgages were ripping people off by forcing insurance charges onto peoples mortgage accounts without their knowledge and then charging admin fees for mortgage arrears. This is a particularly nasty case because they hid behind all the corporate curtains and the financial ombudsman was inept and impotent and embarrassing.
People were losing thousands of pounds and even houses over this scam, I had great pleasure in outing this and smashing their brand through every medium I could, in fact such was my voracity that I had Panorama contact me as they had decided to investigate the scam.
It spent three months gathering evidence for the BBC, email addresses of people who had been ripped off, new contacts, stories, other forums, I did interviews and Panorama made a complete programme about Capstone Mortgages, the brand was ruined, action groups set up around the country.
Such was the ferocity and momentum of the adverse publicity that Capstone Ended the brand completely and renamed themselves Acendon.
Now I find that they are still at it and I am taking my fight now to Acenden in the same way I took it to Capstone Mortgages and I cannot wait because I still have people calling me and emailing me in tears, at their wits end because the same practices are being deployed.
Now this may be a work in progress but one thing is for certain, the cost to capstone has been immense and in the end the cost to Acenden will be immense too.
Again a brand search for Capstone Mortgages shows the cataclysmic damage done to the brand and the social media and digital approach will now be utilised just the same for Acenden.
Covert Adverse PR Campaigns
Now these are just the public case studies but behind the scenes there are many covert cases where justice is dealt without the spotlight coming back to me. This is similar to the way that the Super Injunctions were routed after they became the preferred choice for celebs and the rich to circumvent adverse publicity damaging their reputations.
This is an anonymous and dark world where the trails go cold but the publicity surfaces and sticks, it is utilised where justice needs to be done but there is risk from deep pockets is too great.
In this world the same damaging effects can be meted out to those corporate companies who ride roughshod over more vulnerable people and smaller companies. This is a world where contract disputes that would normally fall into favour with the corporate company with masses of disposable money are suddenly given a new dimension that makes the corporate suddenly become reasonable and accountable.
This is my world where I rule where I am covert and where the power I have in the creation and dissemination of good or bad publicity is beyond lawyers and big bank accounts.
