P&O Cruises reminds shoppers it isn’t P&O Ferries in crisis PR ad
P&O Cruises has launched an emergency ad campaign to avoid the splashback from the botched mass sacking at P&O Ferries, which is a completely detached company.
P&O Cruises is in crisis PR mode to avoid being capsized by its ferry namesake
Attempts by the cruise line to impress upon a confused public that it has no links to P&O Ferries have run aground as it comes under repeated boycott calls from social media users assuming that P&O Cruises and P&O Ferries are a single entity.
P&O Cruises has enacted a crisis PR campaign with full-page advertisements in local newspapers around Southampton as it seeks to educate the public on the finer details of its long history and complicated ownership structure.
Addressing one anonymous tweeter who called for a P&O boycott head-on, the advertisement read: “Our names may both begin with P&O, but that’s where the similarity ends.
“P&O Cruises is Britain’s biggest cruise line. We are part of Carnival Corporation plc, and we have been for 20 years.”
Awkward but understandable - ad from P&O Cruises - reminding / informing people that P&O Cruises has been part of Carnival Corporation for over 20 years and has no connection to P&O Ferries - who’ve just unceremoniously sacked workers via Zoom pic.twitter.com/toktDcfgsk
— Arif Durrani (@DurraniMix) March 27, 2022
P&O Cruises has been swept up in the wake of a growing backlash against P&O Ferries, which has been left all at sea by a rising tide of criticism generated by the decision to sack 800 workers in favor of cheaper agency staff.
Commentators have lambasted that decision as a gross example of “cowardly leadership,” with its brand perception cratering as a result.
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