Ironic Crisis Communication?

Abstract

Humour and irony are normally not recommended within crisis communication. So when the main Swedish rail company SJ in January 2011 issued three short videos taking an ironical stance on the company and its damaged reputation, it attracted a great deal of attention. But the good will generated by this unexpected irony was apparently never fully understood by the management, and was thus lost or directly undermined by their subsequent communication.

Keywords

• rhetoric
• crisis communication
• irony
• humour
• pr