United Breaks Guitar

Corporate companies and organizations seem to have several things in common; the fight of the consumer, the importance of customer service, and most of all, the eye appealing and customer-grabbing approach of public relations. In such cases it’s a companies prime responsibility to gain the satisfaction of all customers so that they wont think twice when it comes to company loyalty. However, in unfortunate cases wrongfully betraying a customer or receiving reputable bad feedback and experiences can lead consumers astray. In one particular PR case, United Airlines and musician, Dave Carroll fight head-to-head in a reputation worthy gauntlet.

On a United Airlines flight, Dave Carroll saw airline employees throw his $3,500 Taylor-brand guitar while loading onto the plane, causing immediate and non-repairable damage to the expensive music maker. For very apparent reasons Carroll was livid at the situation and spoke to numerous United employees to seek some sort of compensation for his broken guitar. Day after day, repeated phone calls describing the same problem, being transferred back and forth to different departments, nine months had slipped away, and finally Carroll received an answer. United Airlines refused to replace, compensate or negotiate with Carroll, so the talented musician took the matter into his own hands. Fully aware of the power of social media, networking, and the rise of celebrities via YouTube Carroll wrote United Airlines worst, most-catchy, company jingle about his chaotic endeavors with the company and brought it to the public eye by one click on YouTube.

The United Airlines disgrace traveled faster than was ever imagined and before Carroll knew it, the video went viral and millions of individuals became aware of the unbelievable horror story of customer service associated with United. The video is called “United Breaks Guitars” and has been viewed almost 11 million times. Just as most YouTube celebs receive fame, one person in particular attracted to Carroll’s incident, Bob Taylor. Bob Taylor is the man behind the Taylor Guitar, he is the owner, he called Carroll and offered him two new guitars of his choice along with the help producing another music video about the nightmare. This high profile image and video send United Airlines stock down $300 million, and thousands upon thousands of people voiced their own opinion about United via social networking sites.

Viral videos are impossible to predict, and in this case Carroll had luck on his side. His video showed the importance of social media and educated millions of people about the reality of United Airlines. United is receiving is exactly what they deserve. Poor image for poor service. Its obscenely amusing that United tried to pay Carroll to remove the video from the Internet, and after almost eleven million views, they are now offering to replace the guitar and award free flights. Lets get real, United, the last thing Carroll wants is to ride free with you guys.