I'm sorry, I know I'm going on about this but I believe strongly that it is wrong and should be addressed by the very public that Benihana Kuwait has shown such contempt for in its actions.
I sent this message to Benihana Tokyo, the company responsible for the international Benihana franchise, tonight. You can do the same - cut and paste mine, write your own, whatever. Just use the contact form linked right here.
The guys at 2:48AM shouldn't have to defend an expensive, scary and vicious - let alone frivolous - suit from a corporate company in this way for expressing their opinion as consumers. It's got to stop.
Thanks.
PS: A chronology of this goof-up is now up over at the UAE Community Blog.
I sent this message to Benihana Tokyo, the company responsible for the international Benihana franchise, tonight. You can do the same - cut and paste mine, write your own, whatever. Just use the contact form linked right here.
Hi
I'm contacting you to let you know that I, and very many others across the Middle East, am angry and concerned that one of your franchisees has seen fit to issue suit against a blogger who posted a negative review of a poor experience in Kuwait's Benihana franchise.
The resulting online outcry will not go away, more and more mainstream media are picking up the story and it is highly likely to be covered by international media. It's a landmark suit - not only against Kuwait's most popular blog, not only unfair but also the first time that a company in the Middle East - a region with its own issues with censorship and repression - has sued a blogger.
Benihana Kuwait's maladroit handling of this issue has already created a social media case study that will run and run. It's time to stop this.
I urge you to pressure your franchisee into dropping this unwise suit. It has already caused untold damage to the Benihana brand in this region - you can act before it does so internationally.
I'm contacting you to let you know that I, and very many others across the Middle East, am angry and concerned that one of your franchisees has seen fit to issue suit against a blogger who posted a negative review of a poor experience in Kuwait's Benihana franchise.
The resulting online outcry will not go away, more and more mainstream media are picking up the story and it is highly likely to be covered by international media. It's a landmark suit - not only against Kuwait's most popular blog, not only unfair but also the first time that a company in the Middle East - a region with its own issues with censorship and repression - has sued a blogger.
Benihana Kuwait's maladroit handling of this issue has already created a social media case study that will run and run. It's time to stop this.
I urge you to pressure your franchisee into dropping this unwise suit. It has already caused untold damage to the Benihana brand in this region - you can act before it does so internationally.
The guys at 2:48AM shouldn't have to defend an expensive, scary and vicious - let alone frivolous - suit from a corporate company in this way for expressing their opinion as consumers. It's got to stop.
Thanks.
PS: A chronology of this goof-up is now up over at the UAE Community Blog.