Volkswagen scandal.

The scandal:

One of Germany’s biggest car dealerships that export cars worldwide were found cheating on their emissions tests. This was only found out when the cars had already been export to the USA and the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) did a check up on the cars and found that emissions were way to high. The market for diesel cars in the USA has increased massively in recent years. 482000 cars in the USA were dubbed harmful to the environment and are being sent back to Germany. According to VW there are 11 million cars that have been transported worldwide have the “defect device.” The faulty car engines were missed or dismissed even though VW had the right equipment to check for it and fix it. The engines emitted nitrogen oxide pollutants up to 40 times above what is allowed in the US.

“We've totally screwed up," said VW America boss Michael Horn and chief executive Martin Winterkorn said his company had "broken the trust of our customers and the public." With almost 500,000 cars in the US alone, VW has set aside €6.5bn (£4.7bn) to cover costs. But according to EPA that wont cover it, they are expecting 18 billion US dollars. Shareholders are struggling to sell their shares for the cost and worth of shares as decreased so rapidly.

A crisis at Volkswagen is a crisis for Wolfsburg. They say one of the first things you see from Wolfsburg main station is the logo of Volkswagen. Seeing as it is not just Volkswagens image and economy on the line here, public faces are trying to keep the people of this town calm and keep there economic status under wraps. But to say that people and employees of this town and this company are calm is a complete fabrication. The outrage is being heard and scattered all of the media. 4 generations of people have worked at VW and in this town and the betrayal is not going to be forgotten at time soon.

The globalisation of this company has been compromised and major exports of cars from VW are put on hold until the trail and investigation are closed. 

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-34347741 

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-34365794

 

 

Malaysian Airlines changed its name

After all the bad press it is not surprising that Malaysian Airlines wants to change and get a different publicity. So there is something in the news that is not about the crash and the missing plane. It is a strategy to try and no longer be associated with the incidents. This way they hope that people will distance the association from the airline and the crash/disappearance. They are trying to change as many things about themselves as possible; it is amazing that they are still open. 

They have even changed the CEO to a German, Christoph Mueller, who is planning on completely changing to a new airline that will start the major changes on September first. He is the first non-Malaysian CEO. Though Malaysian airlines are technically bankrupt, they have found a way to reemploy the major faces of their company.

They have changed so much of their company to get their customers back, because after bad publicity and having bad incident spread over the world, many people would switch airlines. There for showing that they have changed major parts of the company show that they are “new and improved. ” Trying to clear their name of the scandal that has taken place, they are trying to reinforce that changes have been made and that there should not be any more crashes or plans missing from Malaysian airlines. 

They have informed the public that the major changes are taking place behind the scenes but the change in name (though minor) is still present. Originally the airlines were called “Malaysian Airline System Berhad “ and it is presently called “Malaysia Airlines Berhad.”

Advertisements have also developed after the crash. Seeing as the crash of Malaysian airline was on the 8^th of March 2014, the adverts before then were like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pJu6U0BzPo and after March of 2014 the advertisements took a different turn. They had to get new adds out into circulation shortly after the crash or there would be no chance of getting more customers. So instead of being formal and saying that it is safe to fly with them. They created: “A Malaysian Story.”  This is one of the many Malaysian Stories: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKU1Kx9X0MM. The different between the ads are unbelievable. The first one is a normal advertisement about going to fly with Malaysian airlines published in 2012/2013. The second add is an appreciation for life and nature. They incorporated making flight a reality for the little boy while also reinforcing how important life and family is.  Changes are still to come for this airline, and have a lot of work still to come.