Affiliate institution
The media greatly influences our perceptions about an event; it determines how we are likely to perceive the event. The media is the main channel through which the ordinary person gets all the facts about an event. Misleading information from the media is likely to lead a person astray. According to psychologists, first impressions about something really matter. Whatever we hear, see experience or feel during the first encounter with something solely determines how we perceive the rest of it. If the media draws attention to certain facts or details, it can change the prior information that we already have about an event. The choice of word and phrasing used is what influences our mindsets in such a way that we tend to recall details that coincided with whatever we were expecting.
Similarly, the newspaper, radio and television played a major role in influencing people’s impressions about the McDonald’s coffee spill incident. The media influenced people to think that Ms. Liebeck’s case was a frivolous lawsuit. The lawsuit has been used frequently as a major example of frivolous lawsuits. Various comedians, including David Letterman, have made use of this lawsuit as a punch line to most of their jokes. The general public has also made use of this lawsuit to crack up jokes for their own gain. Television programs such as the Seinfeld which borrows some concepts from the lawsuit. The program, which is fancied by many people, has an episode that involves Cosmo Kramer’s lawsuit towards Java World after he spills coffee on himself while getting a seat at the theater. The media has perpetrated the idea that Ms Lieback’s lawsuit was frivolous. Frivolous lawsuits are lawsuits filed by an attorney or someone who knows that the lawsuit lacks merit, either due to lack of a realistic basis or lawful argument. In the real sense, Ms Liebeck knew that her lawsuit was based on sufficient facts.
If I were an expert consultant in brand management, I would have advised McDonald’s to accept the charges against him and seek a way to compensate for the damage made on Ms. Lieback. I think that if a company makes mistakes with its strong brands its only right for it to correct the mistake instead of seeking reasons to justify it. Justifying the mistake erodes the public’s trust in the company and even leads to decrease in sales.
I think the jury was influenced by the fact that similar lawsuits had been filled in the past years and ye McDonald’s had not made any effort to warn their customers of the coffee temperatures, even using the simplest ways possible. The jury was right. Even if the company’s strategy lies in producing very hot coffee, I think not every person is aware of that. Someone might have been just passing by and stopped to buy coffee without knowing that it is very hot. Hence, the company should have made an effort to warn their customers.
The tort system is efficient in the United States. The US heavily relies on the tort system as compared to other mechanisms such as insurances and contracts. It has been rated the top most nation relying on the tort system compared to other 11 industrialized nations. A huge share of the county’s gross domestic product is attributed the tort system.
References
Dinnie, K. (2015). Nation branding: concepts, issues, practice. Routledge.
