The salmonella incident
When the UK Central Public Health Laboratory made the connection between Farley’s infant milk and salmonella in 1985, the story made the headlines. The product was recalled immediately at a cost of £8 million. Farley’s parent company Glaxo Smith-Kline was forced to put Farley’s into liquidation and sold its two plants to high-street […]
The success of many brands is determined by the right partnership. This is certainly the case where one product is dependent on another. For instance, software developers and computer manufacturers need each other, and can often achieve better results if they join forces. Similarly, if you produce tyres you need to build and sustain good […]
RJ Reynolds’ attempt to create smokeless cigarettes (see Chapter 3) was not the tobacco company’s only brand failure. In the 1990s, RJR got into big trouble over one of its campaigns to promote its leading brand of cigarettes, Camel. The campaign featured a character called Joe Camel, a cartoon camel who wore trendy clothes and […]
In 1986, Gerber, the German baby food manufacturer, made a critical PR mistake. When incidents of glass shards were found in its jars of baby food, Gerber remained tight-lipped and failed to issue a recall. This decision invited a lot of criticism with articles in Business Week, Newsweek and Time openly attacking the company on […]
Procter & Gamble’s toxic shock
In 1980, Procter & Gamble launched a super-absorbent tampon called Rely. However, the super-absorbency of the product was a result of a synthetic substance called carboxymethyl cellulose, which would sometimes leave a synthetic residue inside a woman’s body after the tampon had been removed. ‘From the moment super-absorbent tampons hit the […]
Poisoning a brand
Among the most dreaded situation for any food brand, an outbreak of food poisoning ranks pretty high. For Snow Brand, Japan’s premier dairy foods company, 2000 was the year when that nightmare came true, in the most disastrous way.
After consuming milk or related products made by Snow Brand, 14,800 people, mostly in western […]
Ending in tragedy
In the 1980s, Pan American World Airways, or Pan Am, was one of the most famous brands of airline on the planet. For more than 60 years it had pioneered transocean and intercontinental flying. Having begun life in 1927 with a few aircraft and a single route from Key West to Havana, Pan […]
No matter how careful a company is, bad things can happen to its brands. The part that is within the company’s control is how it decides to handle crises when they occur.
The company most respected for its crisis management capabilities is Johnson & Johnson. When a problem emerges with a Johnson & Johnson brand, the […]
As brands go, McDonald’s is a biggie. Along with Coca-Cola and Marlboro, it is one of the few brands which is recognized in almost every country. As McDonald’s itself proclaims, its chain of fast food restaurants represents the ‘most successful food service organization in the world.’ There are now approximately 25,000 McDonald’s restaurants across the […]
Don’t say a word
Many companies and organizations have had to deal with a crisis during their history. Only a very few, however, come to represent corporate incompetence and irresponsibility through one critical event. Oil company Exxon is among them.
In 1989, the Exxon Valdez oil tanker ran aground and began spilling oil off the coast of […]
