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Intro:

Welcome to week 3 of the class and hope you are starting to get the hang of it.  This week our discussions will focus on some “textbook crises” and what happened as well look at a generic crisis communication plan for a large organization.  

Textbook Crises:

The two crises we will take a brief look at are the Tylenol murder case of 1982 and the Exxon Valdez oil spill case of 1989.  These two incidents were the precursors to the field of crisis communications.  Prime example of how to handle a crisis and how not to handle a crisis were illustrated.  These events highlighted the need for plans.  Let’s take a look!

The Tylenol Murder Case:

Johnson & Johnson, the parent of Tylenol, was considered one of the most trusted companies in business.  Employees were part of an organization that was considered one of the top 100 companies to work for.  They had a strong media relationship.  On September 30, a Chicago Sun-Times reporter contacted a public relations official to inquire about Tylenol’s market share and how long they had been in the market.  This seemed odd to the staffer who reported it up the chain.  Later, the reporter called back and said there had been some reported deaths as a result of using their Extra Strength Tylenol.  One of the Vice Presidents was on vacation, but always called in and returned immediately upon learning of this news.  Johnson & Johnson had no crisis communication plan at the time, which was not uncommon (Fearn-Banks, 2011a).

High level executives met to discuss the situation and noted there had been no warnings or prodomes for this type of incident.  When the story was made public by the media, it frightened the public.  A seven member crisis team was formed to determine what was actually happening first, then figure out how to deal with it!  Tylenol was recalled from all Chicago area stores.  It was determined that cyanide was the culprit but it was not known how cyanide could make its way into the capsules.  Johnson & Johnson was diligent in their frankness and cooperation with the media to get the warning out to the public.  The company did three things that were thought to be factors in the success of their response.  They were media cooperation, willingness to recall the product, and asking for the public’s trust (Fearn-Banks, 2011a).

The team worked with local police and the FBI in their search for those responsible.  The key publics identified by the team were the consumers, the medical profession, employees, and the Food and Drug Administration.  These publics were coordinated with at the onset and during the crisis.  Johnson & Johnson had the support of the Chicago newspapers.  It was initially thought that the plant of origin might be where the tampering occurred.  Thousands of news stories were run throughout the duration of the crisis.  A few hiccups occurred as the Vice President initially said there was no cyanide on the plant site.  Reporters followed up and determined there was cyanide on site but it was then confirmed the cyanide was stored in a separate facility so there was no way it could have accidentally been put into the capsules.  The Vice President confirmed these facts and admitted his error.  The Vice President had a good reputation with the media and asked them not to run with this latest story.  After the New York Times got a hold of the story, the Vice President asked the media for discretion in running the story, which they did (Fearn-Banks, 2011a).

It was soon discovered that both the Pennsylvania plant and the Texas plant were where the capsules originated.  It was opined that the products were tampered with outside the facilities by some deranged individual who tampered with the products and put them back on store shelves.  This was before all of the tamper proof containers you see today!  Once this was determined it was now time to restore the good name of Tylenol and get sales back up.  The CEO communicated with his employees that they were coming back.  The employees were kept completely in the loop throughout the process.  A copycat crime however, derailed the comeback and all Tylenol products were taken off the shelves.  When the new tamper proof containers came on line within a month, the products were brought back in full force with coupons available for their purchase.  Top executives were on major national news programs spreading the word.  After losing more than $100 million dollars, the company slowly but surely regained the market share it had prior to this incident!  Seven people died during this incident!  The responsible party was never found (Fearn-Banks, 2011a)!  How do you think Johnson & Johnson handled this crisis?  What more could they have done?

The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill:

Of the five largest companies in the United States in the 1980s, Exxon was one of them.  Their CEO had been with them for over 35 years and did not have a fondness for the media or publicity.  The Exxon Valdez oil spill commenced in the early hours of March 24, 1989 on a calm clear night.  There was a lot of wildlife in the area.  This oil tanker was almost 1,000 feet long.  The Captain was a man named Joseph Hazelwood and he had 21 years with Exxon and had navigated this same route over 100 times.  Hazelwood took a break and had his Third Mate take charge of the ship with instructions to turn right in 3 minutes.  The Third Mate went too long and ran the tanker aground, ripping a hole in the tanker and spewing over 11 million gallons of oil into the water.  Thousands if not millions of animals died (Fearn-Banks, 2011a).

The major network picked up the story reported by the local media almost immediately and reporters began pouring into the area.  Also arriving were the environmentalists.  Exxon’s Alaska coordinator arrived almost immediately and though regretting the spill, decided to go into cleanup mode as quickly as possible.  The initial blame of course went to Captain Hazelwood.  Hazelwood had previous incidents of abuses of alcohol, however he denied he was drinking that evening while on duty.  He was never proven to be under the influence but was fired anyway.  Employees of Exxon blamed the company for cutting crew size, forcing crews to work longer hours with little sleep.  The ship was built to be manned by a crew of 33, but on that night, there were only 19 persons on board.  Exxon’s CEO would not go to the site, causing more anger with the locals.  Exxon’ shipping president held press conferences without coordination with public relations personnel.  The press conferences did not go well!  With all the negative publicity, customers began cancelling their credit cards!  After consultation with Alaska’s largest public relation firm, Exxon looked at three areas for of future concern.  They were tourism, animal rescue, and the seafood industry (Fearn-Banks, 2001a).

Animal rescue centers were set up with wildlife professionals.  The media and numerous locals began to get in the way of the rescue effort, forcing the rescue centers to implement security measures.  The media was brought in on pre-arranged tours with instructions that helped ensure the animal’s protection.  This was also done at other animal rescue centers that helped with the liaison between the oil super giant and the local community (Fearn-Banks, 2011a).

The public relations firm took over the tourism efforts.  The spill had taken place during the prime tourism period.  The fear was that tourists would associate the oil spill with all of Alaska.  Working with the major cruise lines and funded by Exxon, travel writers were brought into the areas to see first-hand what areas were still great for tourism.  Hotlines were initiated for travel writers around the country.  Press conferences were held around the county with the Alaskan Governor involved.  He was highly respected and trusted and told all that “Alaska is beautiful,” and people believed him.  Advertising campaigns kicked off, funded by Exxon that had a significant impact!  Tourism actually increased that year (Fearn-Banks, 2011a)!   

Exxon’s CEO never made any apologies to those whose lives were severely impacted.  Fishermen bore the brunt of the oil spill.  The CEO was emotionless!  Although the company ran ads expressing concern for oil spill and promising to clean up, they did not admit blame for the incident.  It wasn’t until three weeks that Exxon’s CEO finally showed up to the area.  It took almost a month for Exxon to get all of the equipment to the area for the clean-up of the oil spill.  The completion of the clean-up ended almost three years later.  Exxon insisted that predictions of long-term impacts were overstated.  Compared to other oil spills, the Exxon Valdez was huge!  This event became the prodome of all prodomes for other oil companies (Fearn-Banks, 2011a)!

Since the spill, much of the wildlife has recovered, but not all!  Captain Hazelwood was convicted of negligent discharge of oil.  Exxon had to pay out $5 billion dollars in damages to the fishing industry and spent another $3 billion in fines and clean-up costs (Fearn-Banks, 2011a)!  How do you think this spill compared to Deepwater Horizon?  How about the actions of BP as related to those of Exxon?

Generic Crisis Communication Plan for a Large Company:

These are the areas of a generic crisis communication plan for a large company:

Definitions

Communication Objective

Roles and Responsibilities

Crisis Notification

Communications Procedures - Minor Crisis

Communications Procedures – Major Crisis

Emergency Operations Center activation

Spokesperson Identification

Spokesperson Guidelines

Briefing Formats

New Releases

Messages for Media

Crisis Audiences

How People Receive Information during a crisis

Tools to Use

Wrap up:

See Appendix A for more details on each area (Fearn-Banks, 2011a).  These plans are important and each of these areas help provide the details for the plans.  Thought of ahead of time and then practiced and evaluated, these plans provide a road map for successful operations during a minor or major crisis.  Having reviews on a periodic basis also help to ensure the relevancy of the plan and keep them up to date.  A plan that sits on the shelf is no good.  The plan should be in hard copy as well, just in case!  Think about these areas as you participate in the forum and complete the assignment for this week!

Fearn-Banks, K. (2011a). Textbook Crises. In Crisis Communications (Fourth ed., pp. 90-109). New York, New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. 

Fearn-Banks, K. (2011b). Appendix A, Generic Crisis Communication Plan for a Large Company. In Crisis Communications (Fourth ed., pp. 320-339). New York, New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.

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