Even months later, Penn State continues its mission of reputation management after the Jerry Sandusky scandal. Jerry Sandusky was an assistant coach for the Nittany Lions’ football team that was accused of numerous counts of sexually abusing young boys. Needless to say, this has generated quite the controversy surrounding the institution and how it runs. Countless individuals and groups have publicly criticized the university on the internet and in the press.

Part of the reputation management campaign is dealing with the university’s decision to relieve long-time football head coach Joe Paterno from his job. Penn State received a lot of flak from alumni, former players, current students, and fans after the decision to dismiss Joe-Pa, as he is affectionately known. As what can only be seen as part of a PR campaign to satisfy fans, students, and alumni the university has also announced that it will be paying Joe Paterno as if he had retired and not been let go by the university. For fans of Joe-Pa this does not seem to be enough, they feel he shouldn’t have been let go in the first place.

While many on the connected to Penn State in some fashion disliked the firing, many on the outside saw it as a necessary step. Numerous people believed that Joe-Pa did not handle the situation properly; they believed that he should have done more than simply pass the initial accusations on to his superiors. Paterno believes that he did the correct thing by passing the basic information he was given to the proper channels, but does admit that he could have done more.

As a result of Sandusky’s actions, and even some of their own, or lack thereof, the event has affected the jobs of a few different employees of the university. Including the release of Sandusky and Paterno, the university let go the Athletic director at the time, Tim Curley, and former university vice president, Gary Schultz. As part of his duties, Schultz was in charge of directing campus police. Both men now face perjury and failure to report sexual abuse indictments.

In a recent town hall style meeting with alumni, current Penn State University President Rodney Erickson addressed the situation. He stated his belief that these allegations were not a university scandal, but only a Sandusky issue. While the individuals involved in this scandal have been let go by the university, it does continue to be a university issue. Jerry Sandusky will forever be linked to Penn State since he was a coach at the university while these acts were allegedly committed, so it will never be seen as only a “Sandusky Scandal”. The fact that other members of the college had a hand in sweeping the allegations under the rug and not reporting the initial accusations keep the scandal from being only a “Sandusky Scandal” too. Dealing with these issues and rebuilding a positive reputation will drag on for Penn State for several years.

Recently Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta initiated a new ad campaign that may have some cause for online reputation management on their part. The ad campaign known as “Strong4Life” based on a tough, no-nonsense approach at attacking childhood obesity. There are many people that feel this approach may be too harsh, while there are some who think it is just what these children and their parents need. There are lots of opinions about these ads, while several of them seem to be on the negative side.

Children’s Healthcare might have to do some serious PR work in the area of reputation management both on and off the internet, but most of their negative feedback seems to be coming from the “Strong4Life” Facebook and Twitter pages. While they do have positive feedback on their pages, the focus seems to be on the feedback of the individuals claiming that the ads are severely negative.

Some of the detractors claim the ads do not allow for the other causes of obesity. They claim that it is “too hurtful” to the people that the ads are aimed at. Some also feel it is the wrong way of approaching the problem of childhood obesity. Some individuals view the ads as attacks at the children and parents.

While some of these ads may be seen as, and may in fact be, too harsh, sometimes tough, straight talking is needed in order for things to be accomplished. Some of the advocates of the ads claim that we need to stop hiding behind political correctness in this country in order to get things accomplished.

Sometimes a softer attitude is more appropriate, in which you get the target to ask questions of themselves and realize the change that is needed on their own. Instead of telling them what to do and being too candid, which may leave them to just focus on the severity of the words and not the underlying message, a softer approach could work better. It seems to be a delicate balance of what some deem political correctness and others deem correctness. To save their online reputation “Strong4Life” could need to find this middle ground with their ads.

Finding a way to have ads that are both harsh and soft could help. They could also create ads that let viewers see that they do understand there are other factors to obesity, but that does not mean it should all just be excused away. To help their online reputation, Children’s Healthcare could make posts on their Facebook Fan Page letting the people know they are not necessarily attacking the children, but addressing the problem at large. Writing articles and press releases for distribution on the internet could help them combat the negative feedback, while also attacking the problem of childhood obesity as well.