The Aurora Theater that was the scene of last year's tragic shootings is scheduled to reopen on January 18th. As part of the reopening ceremonies, Cinemark is hosting a "special evening of remembrance" the night prior and has invited the families of the shooting victims to attend. The reopening is supported by the majority of the community and will be attended by the mayor and the governor of Colorado. Grief counselors will be on hand. So why is this a failure of crisis management?
It's a question of perception, as are most crisis management problems.
Victims' families claim that this is the first they have heard directly from Cinemark. The company did offer to pay for funeral expenses not covered by the Crime Victim's Compensation Fund but did this through contact with the funeral homes, not the victims' families. Cinemark has made no apology nor offered any condolences to the victims' families.
Contrast this with the actions of Warner Brothers and others associated with the movie that was playing during the shooting. Warner issued a statement of condolence and cancelled several gala events associated with the movie, revised it's marketing campaign, and promised a substantial donation to Colorado's Community First Foundation. The director, cast and crew sent condolences and the star, Christian Bale, privately visited the survivors in hospital.
By failing to issue a formal statement immediately empathizing with the victims and their families, probably on the advice of attorneys fearing a lawsuit, Cinemark committed a classic crisis management blunder. They then made things worse by creating the appearance of using the victim's families to gain publicity of for the reopening. The timing of the invitation to the families, two days after Christmas, was thoughtless and the method, email, insulting.
Cinemark's failure is reminder that you're never wrong in expressing sympathy. Do it immediately and do it publicly. You don't have to make statements that can come back to haunt you in court but staying silent could cost you dearly in the court of public opinion. Potential jurors read papers and listen to the news.
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