The Epic Disappearance of Corporate “Responsibility”
It seems that for the company Transportadora Silza, of the magnanimous Tomza Group, the concept of “support” is as ethereal and inexplicable as dark matter. One week after the catastrophe on the Pont de la Concorde—a name that now sounds like a cruel joke of fate—which has claimed the lives of 20 people and left 31 in serious condition, the company has executed its most audacious communication strategy: absolute disappearance. Not a call, not an email, not a smoke message. Nothing.
Meanwhile, in the real world, broken families cling to miracles at hospital doors. Adrián Daniel Acevedo recounts with heartbreaking calm how his brother, Erik Vicente, driver of a minibus, was literally engulfed by flames while traveling on his usual route. The result: burns on 100% of their body and a medical prognosis that, with a euphemism worthy of a corporate manual, gives them “little life expectancy.” But hey, at least the doctors do show up to work. Something is something.
The Brilliant Communication Strategy: Silence
The tactics of Silza Transporter are fascinating. Instead of bothering those affected with tedious apologies or, I don’t know, financial support for the six people in a family who have stopped working to look after their loved one, they have opted for radio silence. “We have had no news from the gas company, none,” comments Adrián, with a patience that should be studied by Tibetan monks. “One does not contemplate that these things are going to happen,” he adds, in the understatement of the year. Sure, who’s going to think that a gas company could, I don’t know, explode?
The height of corporate ingenuity is evident in the story of the family situation: they are losing income, they have children to support and, in a plot twist that no one saw coming, it is difficult to do it without money! Developer. As they face this harsh economic reality, the company is probably celebrating not having to print those heavy “we’re so sorry” brochures.
And so that you don’t think that this is an isolated case of bad communication luck, here is Evelia Salud Jaurrieta, sister of María, another victim who was traveling in the same minibus. She agrees with the gas station’s innovative protocol: zero approaches. “Let’s hope that the government gives us a hand, that the gas company helps us,” he says, still with the naive hope that “responsibility” is more than just a nice word to fill out CSR reports.
María, by the way, is the woman who was seen in a viral video getting off the minibus with desperate agility. Of course, the shock wave, with malevolent punctuality, reached her anyway. Now he is in a coma. But hey, at least it gave him a moment of internet fame before the company decided his case was as high a priority as responding to spam.
A week later, the predominant feeling among family members is that everything “is still something very hard to believe.” And who can blame them. It is difficult to believe that in the 21st century, a company can evaporate just like that after a tragedy of such magnitude. It is almost admirable so much… efficiency in evasion. “There he takes her,” says Adrián with a resignation that breaks the soul. Yes, there it takes her, little by little, like the interest of a corporation in the lives it destroyed.
This whole spectacle leaves a rhetorical question in the air: in what public relations manual did they find that the optimal strategy is to pretend that the bridge and the victims had been swallowed by a wormhole? Because, clearly, they are following a protocol to the letter. The small print, yes, the one that nobody reads.
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