A Tennis Match, a Hat, and a Crisis Response Gone Awry
The US Open is underway, and this year’s tournament is also serving up some great lessons in communications and marketing strategy. One match provided an important case study in crisis response.
After his match against Karen Khachanov, Polish player Kamil Majchrzak greeted fans and handed his hat toward a young boy in the stands. Instead of the child receiving it, an adult man quickly snatched the hat.
Majchrzak didn’t catch the moment, but someone sure did. The moment was captured on video and posted to TikTok. It went viral.
Within hours, internet sleuths identified the “hat-snatcher” as millionaire Piotr Szczerek, CEO of Drogbruk, a Polish paving company. The backlash was swift and merciless.
And then things got worse.
Statements attributed to Szczerek began circulating online. Were they real?
Then, came the statements from his wife, Anna. Were they real?
Well, it turns out they were all fakes.
Any PR pro would tell you that those statements, had they been real, would have been an egregious response to the scandal. But that was the point – to stoke the flames.
And while neither of them were real, several people were duped, further dragging the reputation of Szczerek and his company.
Meanwhile, the actual CEO stayed silent.
Szczerek’s official statement didn’t arrive until September 1, four days after the incident on August 28. By that point, the story had spiraled beyond control.
Sound familiar?
Earlier this summer, Astronomer CEO Andy Byron faced his own viral scandal after being caught in an affair with his Chief People Officer (on a Coldplay concert jumbotron, no less). That story broke July 15. His company’s first response came July 19. In those four days? Fake statements and impersonations filled the vacuum, along with millions of online impressions, memes, and more. There is nothing in his official statement that should have taken four days to write.
The Lesson: Crisis Moves Faster Than You Think
The internet—and TikTok in particular—has changed the crisis communications timeline. Viral videos spread at lightning speed. Content creators and brands jump on trending scandals, memes multiply, and misinformation abounds.
Time is your biggest enemy in these moments. Every hour your team spends coordinating is another hour the story grows. Growth online isn’t linear, it’s exponential.
That doesn’t mean every scandal demands an immediate press release or statement. Sometimes silence can be strategic. But if you wait and see and then decide to begin coordinating a response once the story blows up, you’ve already lost.
One more wrinkle that’s new to the crisis playbook: impersonation. When a scandal involves someone without well-established online channels, fake accounts and forged statements are running rampant and taking off as if true. That makes it even harder for the real story to break through. As AI continues to improve, it will grow even more difficult to discern truth from fabrication.
What To Do
Whether you’re a tennis fan or not, this US Open incident is a reminder:
Have a crisis plan ready. You don’t want to build one mid-firestorm.
Move quickly, but carefully. The longer you wait, the more room there is for misinformation. That said, your response should be well thought out and strategic. A knee-jerk response that doesn’t take all variables into account will create more trouble. Move quickly, but take the time needed to do it right.
Have a trusted crisis communicator. They’ll serve as a partner to vet statements and actions.
Control your channels. When silence creates a vacuum, someone else will fill it.
Launch a message monitoring effort. This will help you understand what is being said and written and track misinformation.
In the age of viral video, crisis response isn’t measured in days anymore. It’s measured in hours.
Note: The story had a happy ending, with Majchrzak connecting directly with the boy his hat was intended for with a meet and greet, as well as plenty of swag. Nice job, Majchrzak!