The Hidden Cost of Exposure | 123

In this episode of Don’t Skip the Legal, Andy Contiguglia breaks down what’s more dangerous than a lawsuit—bad exposure. Using real-world case studies of United Airlines and Balenciaga, Andy explores how public missteps can destroy trust in an instant, and how a poor response can multiply the damage. From bloodied passengers to disturbing ad campaigns, he explains where these brands went wrong, and how their responses could have saved, rather than shattered, their reputations. 

Andy emphasizes a core principle often overlooked in crisis response: legal protection alone isn't enough. Exposure is a leadership issue, not just a legal one. If your brand were caught in a crisis today, would your first response make things better—or worse? Tune in to learn how to lead with empathy, act fast, and protect your brand before a viral moment does irreversible damage. Bonus: Download the free Brand Reputation Audit at ethiastrategies.com/audit to uncover where your business is vulnerable. 

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Disclaimer:

Please note that the legal information shared in this podcast is for general informational and entertainment purposes only. It is not a substitute for consulting with a licensed attorney for specific legal matters. Past performance does not indicate future results; every legal case is unique. Consult your own attorney for personalized legal advice.

Transcript

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;32;23 

Andy Contiguglia 

Welcome to the don't Skip the legal podcast. I am your host, Andy Contiguglia. What is more dangerous than a lawsuit? I’ll give you a second to think about that. The reality. It is bad exposure because one tweet, one viral video. One leadership misstep. And suddenly your business becomes a headline and for all the wrong reasons. In this episode of the don't skip the legal podcast, we are talking about exposure. 

00;00;32;26 - 00;00;58;22 

Andy Contiguglia 

What it is, why it matters, and how two global brands, United Airlines and Balenciaga. Learned about it the hard way. I'll show you what they did wrong. How they could have handled it better, and what every business owner can learn from their mistakes. So let's dig in. 

All right. Let's start with United Airlines. In April 2017, a United Airlines flight was overbooked. 

00;00;58;24 - 00;01;23;09 

Andy Contiguglia 

They needed for volunteers to give up their seats. No one bites. So what do they do? They randomly select passengers to be bumped from the flight. Doctor David Dao is one of them, and he refuses to give up his seat. Security is called and they drag him off of the plane. Literally drag him off of the plane. And someone records this entire event and throws it up on social media. 

00;01;23;11 - 00;01;53;21 

Andy Contiguglia 

Doctor Dao is bloodied. He is screaming and he is disoriented. And the footage hits Twitter and it explodes. And in this case, how does United respond? Well, the CEO releases a statement saying, hey, I apologize for having to accommodate customers. Read accommodate. And that one word told the world we care more about liability than people. And then after that, it just got worse. 

00;01;53;24 - 00;02;16;29 

Andy Contiguglia 

An internal memo was leaked defending the crew and blaming the passenger for this behavior and the damage. The stock dropped. The media just came out and lit them up in a firestorm. And in this particular case, the brand trust of New United was shattered. So when we look at this event, what can we learn and what do we think they should have done differently? 

00;02;17;03 - 00;02;44;00 

Andy Contiguglia 

What should they have done instead? I think it's important that companies like United lead with empathy. All right. The way that they behaved in this particular event was unacceptable. We're sorry. This never should have happened. Lead with empathy. This event was unacceptable. It's unfortunate it happened, but it never should have happened. They should have also acted fast within the first 24 hours. 

00;02;44;01 - 00;03;07;22 

Andy Contiguglia 

They should have issued a public apology from the CEO on video, telling everybody what had happened and that they were apologetic for what the event caused. Right. A policy pause and a meeting with Doctor Dao. It's important that they speak like a human. Recommit. It sounds like you are moving hotel guests and not dragging someone across an airplane aisle. 

00;03;07;25 - 00;03;32;20 

Andy Contiguglia 

I remember when I was a kid, years ago, I was out in Hawaii and we were visiting, the church, and one of the patrons at the church was walking out and slipped and fell on the grass. But when she slipped and fell, she cut her leg, literally sliced off her calf. I mean, it was horrible. It looked like a fillet of her calf and she had to be taken to the hospital. 

00;03;32;20 - 00;03;51;06 

Andy Contiguglia 

I remember vividly seeing this when I was a kid and my father, who's a doctor who was there, was like, hey, you guys better go meet this woman. You know, whoever was in charge of the church better go meet this woman at the hospital and offer her some flowers and some champagne and a lot of empathy here, because this could have been a lot worse. 

00;03;51;06 - 00;04;20;22 

Andy Contiguglia 

And really, she needed, comfort and empathy under those circumstances. That event just sticks with me in terms of how you can respond and how empathy can really take a real solid, you know, place in the response. United really should have taken responsibility here. They should have stepped up to the plate and they should have accommodated. We accommodated things a lot differently than the way that they did and they didn't. 

00;04;20;24 - 00;04;51;07 

Andy Contiguglia 

That was their fundamental flaw. The other event that I want to talk about is the Balenciaga event. Right? In late 2022, Balenciaga, the fashion company, drops a holiday ad campaign. It features kids holding teddy bears wearing bondage style gear. You remember this one? And in the background, legal documents referencing a child pornography case. The backlash on this was immediate, and it was massive. 

00;04;51;10 - 00;05;17;01 

Andy Contiguglia 

Celebrities distanced themselves from the brands. Consumers were outraged at what they had put together. And what did Balenciaga do? They blamed the production company. They blamed the people who were in charge of putting this ad campaign together. They filed a lawsuit and they went silent. They tried to blame others, but of course, what they didn't recognize was somebody internally within Balenciaga approved this approach. 

00;05;17;07 - 00;05;38;10 

Andy Contiguglia 

Somewhere in the board of directors, somewhere in the CEO line of other C-suite people, this event was authorized, which should they have done? Well, they should have taken full responsibility. All right. This was a mistake. It should never have happened. And we own what happened. We tried to do something one way, and it was a massive fail. Right? 

00;05;38;10 - 00;05;58;20 

Andy Contiguglia 

Pull back the curtain. We have launched an internal investigation and we are sharing the results publicly. We are trying to find out how something like this could have happened, how it got through our collections. This is something that we need to be prepared to address. And they just didn't do that. And they also needed to rebuild trust through action. 

00;05;58;27 - 00;06;21;04 

Andy Contiguglia 

They needed to partner with child advocacy groups. They needed to donate. They needed to educate. And they did it. They needed to do something in real time, something to show that this event was not who they were, that this was not a description or something that defined them as a fashion company, but instead was just a bad mistake. 

00;06;21;07 - 00;06;56;03 

Andy Contiguglia 

They needed to take action and show that this was the type of behavior that they were opposed to. So here's what these brands got wrong. They tried to protect themselves legally, and I respect. I've been a lawyer for almost 30 years, and I understand how many companies want to take the approach that we need to protect ourselves. And when you are dealing in crisis management, and you are dealing with people who are trying to manage their reputation and protect themselves from a lawsuit that might be coming from another direction, you need to include your legal counsel in this discussion. 

00;06;56;06 - 00;07;16;02 

Andy Contiguglia 

But always taking a legal approach and trying to approach it in trying to protect yourself from a legal standpoint might not always be the best approach. You need to pick and choose, because the moment you draw the line in the sand and take a legal stance and say legally, this is where we're going to be, you are cutting off all other avenues of rehabilitation in this particular case. 

00;07;16;05 - 00;07;46;09 

Andy Contiguglia 

All right. So trying to protect yourself legally, maybe the right thing to do, but something I think you need to approach with everyone, with all the key people in mind. All right. They needed to protect themselves. And that's what they failed to do. Failing to protect themselves publicly is what ended up damaging the brands during these time frames, in the massive amounts and losses of money and exposure, exposure in this particular case, in both of these cases, I think, really isn't just about liability, it's about building trust. 

00;07;46;11 - 00;08;14;03 

Andy Contiguglia 

And when it comes to public relations, and when it comes to making sure that your brand is protected, it really is about trust in your community. Because reality, once your trust is gone. So is your audience. Now, I've been in this game for a long time. I've been a lawyer for almost 30 years. So as a business lawyer, crisis consultant, I have worked with companies that have survived lawsuits just fine, but they have crumbled under the exposure that they didn't see coming. 

00;08;14;05 - 00;08;34;23 

Andy Contiguglia 

There are insurance policies. There are many different ways that companies are protected when it comes to lawsuits. But what you can't ever repair is your trust in your community, whether it's with your customers, whether it's in your with your employees, or whether it is with the families of the people who were hurt in certain events that happened within your organization. 

00;08;34;29 - 00;08;55;28 

Andy Contiguglia 

It's important that you address these issues and take them into consideration as you decide what your path forward is going to be. Protecting yourself from a legal standpoint. Always an important thing to do, but it can't only be the thing that you do. There have to be other components involved. So protecting yourself and surviving lawsuits just fine is one thing. 

00;08;55;28 - 00;09;17;18 

Andy Contiguglia 

But crumbling under the exposure that you didn't see coming is a completely different one. A lawsuit will eventually go away. Your trust and your exposure within your community and your depreciation in your brand can last forever. And really, this is why I started to see strategies. I wanted to help business owners prepare for the moment when the world is watching. 

00;09;17;25 - 00;09;47;28 

Andy Contiguglia 

Because exposure isn't just a legal legal issue, it is a leadership issue. And brands that survive well, they respond like people, not corporations. So if you're wondering how exposed your business might be, I have created a brand reputation audit and you can download it at ACA strategies.com/audit. And in under ten minutes you'll be able to uncover where you in fact are vulnerable and how to fix it. 

00;09;48;00 - 00;10;10;22 

Andy Contiguglia 

So don't wait for the crisis. Prepare for it now. All right, if this episode made you think, wow, share it, please tag a business owner, send it to your leadership team, or post a clip online. I'll even give you a quote to use. The first thing you say in a crisis becomes your brand. You can tag me at AJC, Esq on LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter. 

00;10;10;22 - 00;10;35;05 

Andy Contiguglia 

That's where you can find me. So let's talk about what exposure really means in 2025. So let me leave you with this. If someone took a screenshot of your worst moment tomorrow and posted it, would you be proud of what they found? Would you be prepared or would you scramble to explain it anyway? The hidden cost of exposure isn't just reputation damage, it's distraction. 

00;10;35;08 - 00;11;03;12 

Andy Contiguglia 

It's lost deals. It is lost trusts. And the brands that win aren't the ones that avoid every mistake. They're the ones who are ready when those events hit. So here's your next move. Hit subscribe. Share this episode. Go to ACA strategies.com and get your brand audit done today. Thanks for listening to the don't Skip the legal podcast. And until next time, protect your brand because no one else will. 

00;11;03;19 - 00;11;08;05 

Andy Contiguglia 

And in the end, remember, don't skip the legal. Good luck.