Ironic Crisis Communication?

Abstract

Humour and irony are normally not recommended within crisis communication. So when the main Swedish rail company SJ in January 2011 issued three short videos taking an ironical stance on the company and its damaged reputation, it attracted a great deal of attention. But the good will generated by this unexpected irony was apparently never fully understood by the management, and was thus lost or directly undermined by their subsequent communication. This article addresses the specific case of SJ’s crisis communication in early 2011, with particular interest in the question of the use of humour and irony in a crisis situation.

Humour as a double‐edged sword in response to crises versus rumours: The effectiveness of humorously framed crisis response messages on social media

“…In such a case, humour reduces the perceived sincerity of the response. Previous case studies have shown that humour may be not applicable when a crisis situation is severe (see Kim et al., ; Vigsø, ) as a humorous crisis message may perceived as lacking concern and empathy for victims (Sorensen, ). We also found that when the public's assessment of the organization's sincerity is low, the burden of responsibility on the organization is higher, which confirms the findings of Claeys et al.…”

“…Several case analyses of crises (e.g., Kim et al., ; Sellnow & Brand, ; Vigsø, ) suggest that public relations practitioners prefer to use self‐deprecating humour. This type of humour may be effective because it arouses the public's attention and expresses the organization's willingness to rectify the problem in a humorous way (Vigsø, ).…”

“…Several case analyses of crises (e.g., Kim et al., ; Sellnow & Brand, ; Vigsø, ) suggest that public relations practitioners prefer to use self‐deprecating humour. This type of humour may be effective because it arouses the public's attention and expresses the organization's willingness to rectify the problem in a humorous way (Vigsø, ). Sellnow and Brand () also mentioned that a humorous message helped to interpret the facts of the crisis by calling the company “a monster” in Nike's CEO's speech in response to publics’ criticism against its global manufacturing policies based in low‐wage South‐East Asia.…”

“…SJ framed the videos with ironic humour, by showing how its employees were ashamed of working for SJ; the company created an interest to invite spectators to recognize its confidence to win the publics and employees' trust back. Vigsø (), who investigated the case study of SJ, concluded that humorous crisis response messages could be effective in postcrisis reputation repair, when the severity of the crisis situation is perceived as low.…”

“…The impact of expressions of positive emotions (e.g., humour) in a crisis situation has received scant attention. Following Vigsø (), we expect that humorously framed crisis response messages may damage organizational reputation for crisis situations with seriously injured victims or severe damage, because it signals a lack of empathy on the part of the organization (Sorensen, ; Vigsø, ). In particular, we expect that humorously framed crisis responses may damage the perception of organizational sincerity (Sorensen, ).…”