Ice cold beer update

At the end of July, I posted about a case of Facebook activism from Canada using a beer seller called the 'ice cold beer man' - that I now use as a case study in presentations.

Essentially catering giants Aramark, which held the catering concession for the Toronto Blue Jays (baseball) sacked McMahon for selling two beers to a 22 year old mystery shopper without asking her for her ID.

This is despite the fact that 62 year old McMahon had a clean disciplinary record and it could be argued that a reprimand would have been just as effective in demonstrating the company's responsible drinking policy.

Unfortunately for Aramark, McMahon's trademark shouts of 'ice cold beer' made him popular with Blue Jays fans and an Internet based campaign snowballed against the company. (the original post is here).

After having been covered in the Canadian press (with a court case for wrongful dismissal pending against his previous employer), McMahon's Facebook support group stands at a whopping 20,000+ members. The ice cold beer man himself has also turned adversity into opportunity by launching himself as a brand. Check out his Facebook t-shirt competition, and his website.

Meanwhile for Aramark, the signs are that this won't simply go away. Recently York University (Canada, not UK)) terminated its catering contract with Sodexho and brought in Aramark, prompting comment last week in the Uni paper on the McMahon case and other alleged incidents.

The problem of negative web comment, as I always point out to clients, is that it's permanent. And as recent examples show - it's fairly easily to do major damage to someone's online reputation without too much effort.