A PR Case Study in the Making

Pet owners and the FDA are closely following the sweeping recalls of dog and cat food by Canadian manufacturer Menu Foods. Pet food companies are recalling vast amounts of dog and cat food, because of contaminated wheat gluten used in the food. Public relations is playing a vital role in disseminating information to the public. Will we, as an industry look back on the pet food recalls of 2007, like we do the Tylenol contamination scare of 1982?

Pet Food Recall Causes PR Nightmare

This past week has been a public relations nightmare for the Canadian based pet food company, Menu Foods. A commotion began just a few days ago when dogs and cats across the United States started to become ill and in some instances, even died from kidney failure. Menu Foods is a private-label contracted manufacturer of wet food for many pet food companies such as Eukanuba, Science Diet, and Iams. The FDA has investigated the two U.S. manufacturing plants and has decided that contaminated wheat gluten is to blame for the 14 pet fatalities.

Since this story broke, the news media has been providing extensive coverage on the effects the food has had on the animals contaminated by it. This is obviously Menu Foods' worst nightmare. All this negative PR is hard to overcome, but the company has been proactive in posting press releases on their website. The original press release on March 16th called the recall precautionary and stated that the company is taking measures to prevent farther harm. Later press releases explain the company has improved the accuracy and user-friendliness of their website and customer service hot line.

It is apparent that Menu Foods is faced with a long, uphill battle in rebuilding their company's crediblity but they have taken steps in the right direction by quickly communicating with the public about the crisis at hand.

For a complete list of the pet food companies Menu Foods manufacturers products for, visit the Menu Foods web page.

Ethics and PR?

As a public relations student we are learning the ways of the field. We are taught to be ethical in our ways and to strengthen our code of character. While we are working towards becoming professional and ethical pr practioners.....other are slipping and recreating the stereo-tpye that many feel PR professionals are fueled with.

One foul PR practice was found in a news release from Innotrac Coporation of Atlanta, GA. In this news release a announcement surfaced which boasted a "multi-year, multi-million dollar customer service and technical support agreement" with a large corporate client.

The company's stock went crazy and and doubled in volume. The trading volume came close to 300,000 shares (compared to an average of just 10,000).

Later that day that company issued a statement claiming that the release was not authorized by the company and that the news was not true.

This is a good example of where a small crisis management team should come into play. This also shows how fast a small news release can catch wind with the public; and as a example the increase of the companys stock. The false news release that was published was not related with the comapany, however it makes me wonder how this was printed or released without someone checking the information first. Well, anyway...I thought this was a good example of how PR practioners are still in question of their ethics.

A classic children's toy is recalled

Many little girls remember playing with their easy bake oven. We made 'delicious' cookies and served them to our invisible friends. One million easy bake ovens are now being recalled because they are burning the fingers of little girls Hasbro Recalls Nearly a Million Easy-Bake Ovens. It will be interesting to see what type of PR campaign the company is going to put forth in order to save its reputation. They need to restore faith in their customers that the product is safe. After all, what parent would want to purchase a toy that might burn the fingers of their little one?