We recently came across a crisis story from last year that had escaped our attention, though we’re willing to bet Chicago-area communicators are well aware of it. A restaurant-bar accused of assaulting a patron fought back by releasing video that turned public opinion in its favor. It’s an example of invoking facts to your advantage in a crisis.

Just after midnight on Sunday, March 10, 2024, a 22-year-old woman named Julia Reel was ejected from the Hubbard Inn in Chicago’s River North neighborhood allegedly for being abusive toward a staff member in one of its bathrooms. Reel posted a TikTok video in which she relayed the story, maintaining that a bouncer had dragged her from the ladies’ room and violently manhandled her. Reel’s storytime reportedly garnered millions of views.

This was a serious allegation, and Hubbard Inn endured the expected excoriation from the public and patrons, including reservation cancellations. It didn’t endure the backlash for long. On March 13, 2024, it posted a video on its own TikTok account in which it coupled clips of Reel’s accusations with potentially exonerating security-camera footage.

‘Politely Escorted’

For example, concerning Reel’s claim that the bouncer twice sent her “flying down a staircase,” the video showed Reel calmly walking down the stairs of the three-floor establishment with a friend and a bouncer. Over the video, the company wrote: “She was politely escorted off the premises, ensuring a safe exit. Ms. Reel was not thrown from two sets of stairs.” Hubbard Inn said Reel’s video, and its virality, resulted in “damages to the business, staff and reputation.”

What Hubbard Inn did is notable for a few reasons. First, it’s smart crisis communications to respond to a negative situation on the same platform on which it arose; in this case, TikTok (Hubbard Inn’s effort has more than 10 million views). Second, it’s unusual for a hospitality business to respond so boldly to a customer’s charges of wrongdoing. Third, Hubbard Inn replied to Reel’s accusations by adhering to the facts as it saw them.

Almost immediately after the establishment posted its video, the public tide turned in its favor and against Reel, whom many now called a phony. She eventually deleted her videos from her TikTok account (or made them private), including the Hubbard Inn one.

Which isn’t to say the story ended there. Reel left one video up for a time that her lawyers had posted on March 16, 2024, according to YouTube channel The Reckoning. And here we had the war of facts. The law firm said its ongoing probe had already “revealed facts entirely contrary to the misleading narrative provided on social media by Hubbard Inn.” It said that the area where “Reel suffered her injuries was not videotaped” and that Hubbard Inn’s video clips contained “an approximate two-minute gap that is unaccounted for.”

‘Visible Lacerations’

The firm said Reel “sustained a concussion and presented to the hospital with visible lacerations and other evidence of significant injury.” It urged “the public to hold off on a rush to judgment and/or victim shaming until all the evidence is presented in a court of law.”

And in a court of law the controversy did land. On March 18, 2024, Hubbard Inn sued Reel, arguing she cost it more than $30,000 in canceled reservations; in September 2024, the Cook County judge denied her motion to dismiss the suit. For her part, Reel sued Hubbard Inn for her alleged injuries; in December, a Cook County judge dismissed six of her seven claims.

It’s a vibrant example of a company pushing back hard against a charge of wrongdoing. Yes, Reel fought back with her own facts, but they didn’t gain the same traction as the surveillance video. We will have to wait for the litigation to play out to see who ultimately wins.

Image Credit: Cinar12345/Shutterstock

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