Kudos to Cadbury
Here is a great example of how to handle a crisis.
Cadbury, the company that brings us Cadbury Eggs at Easter (you know, the commercials with the bunny that makes chicken noises), pulled more than one million chocolate bars from store shelves amid fears of salmonella contamination last week.
Cadbury was very up-front and thorough about the situation; it …
- Put out a detailed list of the type of bars that could be contaminated
- Communicated that the potential salmonella levels in the bars was below health problem standards
- Announced if anyone had ingested one of the contaminated bars, they did not have anything to worry about
- BUT Cadbury gave an information number and offered a full refund.
This is a great example of proactive PR. Was this situation a crisis? No. Could the company have let it slide since they knew the potential wasn’t serious? Probably. Instead, Cadbury came forward with ALL of the information for its consumers, pulled the products off of shelves, and set up an informational hotline for those who wanted it. It didn’t hold anything back or try to avoid anything, but was completely honest. This is how any potential crisis situation needs to be handled. Always present all of the information that is available, be timely, explain what has happened and have a way for those affected to get in touch with you.