In 21st Century Business, One Can’t Afford to Have Their Head in The Sand.

Earlier this month one of our personal favorite PR blogs, PR Breakfast Club, wrote a post about the “The Latest Brand to Disappoint.” When we read that it was Etsy ,the online marketplace, jaws at SMPR dropped, specifically the jaw of über-intern Whitney, as it is one of her favorite places to find unique gifts.

So what did Etsy do exactly to disappoint? They allowed one of their retailers to sell goods under the seller name “YouStupidBitch.” In addition to the crass name the goods they sold were a line of greeting cards called “Greeting Cards for Awkward Situations.” Sounds innocent and amusing enough until you see one of the cards.

Now, it’s a fine line they are dancing with here. There are plenty of online greeting card and gift sites that toy with inappropriate and less than politically correct phrasing in comic ways such as, Someecards.com. They, however, manage to be crude with some level of tact. The Etsy seller, on the other hand, managed to dance right over that line with the greatest of ease.

In fact, this seller was found so tactless that Change.org, a major online petition website, created a petition requesting that Etsy remove the cards. They were supported with over 15,000 signatures, but that didn’t seem to matter to Etsy.  The seller continued to use Etsy to sell these less then appropriate “greeting” cards.

It’s a well known fact that in today’s business climate, reputations can be both built and broken via the Internet and social networking.  But here at SMPR, we still don’t understand how some companies think they can get away with putting their heads in the sand hoping a situation can get swept under the rug. Yet, somehow Etsy has done just that.  Maybe folks who use the site to buy and sell goods just don’t want to admit that they are sharing the site with people that lack respect.  Maybe Etsy’s PR and crisis management folks are from a distant generation where “It’ll blow over…” is an acceptable answer for issues.  Either way, people are standing up and noticing and it’s Etsy’s job to remedy this situation.

At SMPR, we talk at lengths about doing what you can do to give your influencers credit for what they know.  Knowledge is power, and in some cases it can be currency for causing changes within an organization.  Let’s hope Etsy has learned their lesson and will keep a closer eye on the type of people who are using their site – as well as what they are selling.