Several years ago, some nitwit wrote a book in which he posited that companies shouldn’t apologize when they’re confronted by crisis. It makes them seem weak, he said, or even “guilty,” which gives their adversaries an advantage.

Evidently, the good PR people at Adidas, headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Germany, never read the book. (Or maybe it wasn’t translated into German!)

Thank goodness.

Had Adidas not acted quickly this week to douse a burgeoning firestorm, it easily might have found itself forever dodging charges of “racism“ or worse.

The story of Adidas‘ ill-fated JS Roundhouse Mids training shoe should serve as an object lesson to any public relations professional, whose company has done something monumentally stupid and then wonders if it should “ cut its losses.“

While every situation is different, the general answer -- in a 2st century society in which Twitter and Facebook information move around the world at the speed of Net – is most usually, “cut early and don’t look back.“

Here’s the Adidas sneaker saga....

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