UK Operator Activities Abroad have found themselves a bit of adverse publicity by sending a newsletter to their mailing list saying chavs not welcome and listing names that you are likely and not likely to find on their holidays. Story in The Guardian and blog response from one of their clients here.
It was undoubtedly misguided to send a newsletter to people called Candice implying that people called Candice are not welcome on their holidays. The Guardian has also stitched them up a little bit, but I am rather surprised at the response from Activities Abroad. The email has clearly caused offence amongst its clients, yet rather than unreservedly apologise, they are trying to justify their actions and play down the incident by saying the numbers of people offended was small (“We sent the newsletter to 24,000 people and only 11 (0.0458%) have expressed themselves to be unhappy with the content”)
With my experience of email shots if you send 24,000 you are lucky if 11 people take the time to read it, so I would take it seriously if 11 people complained. Also it does come across as rather carefree to dismiss the 11 that took the time to complain as being a small minority.
I guess any publicity is good publicity, but you need to handle it well and this is not an example of that.
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To add a bit of balance to your post above, we have also received considerable support in response to the newsletter.
Best regards
Alistair McLean
Activities Abroad