October 1997, the death of Lady Di in a Mercedes S-Class had just calmed down a bit from the Mercedes-Benz point of view. You could provide valuable help in clarifying the accident and thought about taking a deep breath at the upcoming Tokyo Motor Show, when another crash hit the people of Stuttgart to the core. This time it was a Scandinavian car tester, the Swede Robert Collin, who put the brand new A-Class, the brand's new flagship model, on the roof during a tough change maneuver to inspire new buyers.
The drama surrounding what was later called the "elk test" took its course. Wolfgang Inhester was the head of communications at the time and recognized early on that it could become a bigger problem for the brand. He developed crisis communication and a strategy that ultimately even allowed Mercedes-Benz to collect sympathy points, despite all the prophecies of doom!
In this video, Wolfgang Inhester tells how he experienced the drama surrounding the overturned A-Class and why Niki Lauda became one of the key figures.
By the way, there is an interesting video of the test drive with Niki Lauda mentioned in this conversation that you can find here:    • A-Klasse Elchtest mit Niki Lauda  
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