Premium #326 – Managing in an Age of Viral Video

In recent weeks, we’ve seen several airline videos, including a passenger being dragged off a United Express (Republic) flight and a woman holding two children in distress after being hit in the head by a stroller grabbed by a male flight attendant.  There has also been other negative news from Delta, Air Canada, and more that received notoriety.

On my way home from lunch, I was listening to a sports talk show discussing an NBA post-game press conference, talking about a hostile question from a reporter.  They then wondered aloud whether he should have been “taken out like a United passenger.”  When viral videos transcend the web to becomes a part of pop culture, you have a serious problem as an airline.  It will take years for United to stop being the poster child for bad behavior.