Also, activists, dressed as Star Wars characters, protested on the streets with banners, in China, New Zealand, Canada, and EIGHT European Countries.In response to this intense crisis, VW released a statement that said that they are confused why Greenpeace is targeting them, since they are launching green, ecofriendly cars in the year. They “BOLSTERED” by associating and reminding the general public of the positive aspect of the organization.
On the New Year, VW posted on their Facebook page a status that reads “ We hope you had a fantastic new year. Do you have any resolutions and what would you like to see us do more of this year?” Considering this was during the crisis period, it was perhaps a bad time to engage and ask for feedback. As a consequence, there were over 2000 comments against the company, and asking VW to stop lobbying against climate laws. VW decided to ignore all the comments, and instead respond to other positive posts on their Facebook page. Perhaps they thought that the denial strategy would work, and this anger among people would pass. However, it made the situation for VW even worse than it already was. In order to analyze and examine the crisis communication of VW, I would be using theories and models – which will help me gain an objective view of the communications in this case. In order to understand 1each phase of the crisis, I will chart out the development of an issue to the crisis and also use the Crisis – Type Matrix.To understand the