PR Firms Cashing In on Obamacare Disaster

Finds useful space as a dire warning to others

It may have been a debacle, but there is one upside to the glitch-plagued rollout of the health care website: It's become a powerful case study for crisis management consultants and their clients of what not to do.

In Chicago, H + A International, a communications firm, delivered its customers a 15-point diagnosis of the administration's handling of the crisis. That led one of its clients to temporarily halt the introduction of a new software product for engineers at a recent trade show of 30,000 people.

In San Francisco, Singer Associates, a public relations company, used the Obama crisis to prevail upon major real estate and environmental remediation clients to beta test their online programs before launching them. Sam Singer, the president, said, "A lot more clients are now asking for an extra set of eyes on things before they roll them out.''

Comments

[Ann N]

IMO the blundering IS the pr.

all this talk about incompetency masks the inherent immorality of forcing healthy ppl to subsidize unhealthy and forcing consumers to participate in a market involuntarily.

the story of obamacare is a broken website. this was not an unintentional PR disaster, the appearance was by design.

i generally rate a news source by HOW they cover the disaster. you would expect statist outlets to proliferate the 'incompetence' angle.

when you are pushing wealth redistribution (away from healthy able persons who have money) merged with micromanagement of citizens healthcare...the best option is to focus on imperfections that are meaningless. it gives haters a worthless target and obfuscates resolution of real issue.

the first and strongest implication of website problems is that there are ppl who need some service who are being denied access. IOW demand outpaces supply. meaning: THIS IS A GOOD THING WE NEED MORE OF.

its the deeper meaning of implications that truly give marketing its form and strength. websites can be fixed, but the public's demand will have lasting effects on the public's perception of a programs validity.