The PR Effect of Crisis Management

A woman finds a finger in her Wendy's Chili but that turns out to be a hoax. A man finds a finger in his frozen chocolate custard and that turns out to be true. A man bites into his Arby's chicken sandwich and finds a piece of human skin. All of these extras in your food just begs the question: What's the PR effect of crisis management?

Wendy's

The story:Anna Ayala claimed she bit down on a finger while eating Wendy's chili in San Jose, California. Police have since ruled Ayala's allegations a hoax and have arrested her. But the finger is legit. Wendy's offered up a $100,000 reward to find the finger's owner and a tip lead to an associate of Ayala's husband who lost his finger in an industrial accident.

The damage:Wendy's reported a sales drop at its Northern California locations. Employees have been laid off and work hours were reduced as a result of Ayala's claims and consumers steering clear of Wendy's.
The fast food chain offered a free frosty day at the San Jose location where the the scam occurred and customers were out the door waiting in line. Wendy's then offered a nationwide free frosty day and the event just happened to coincide with the news that the finger's owner had been found.
Ayala was arrested for making false claims but Wendy's President and Chief Operating Officer Tom Mueller says Wendy's reputation has been damaged nationally. Stocks dropped and the chain reports first-quarter earnings fell because of the finger incident and inclement weather.

Kohl's Frozen Custard

The story:Clarence Stowers found a finger in his custard at Kohl's Frozen Custard in Wilmington, N.C. He thought it was candy and ate all of the ice cream off of it before realizing it was actually a human finger. He only wished his find was a hoax. But an employee had lost part of his index finger in a freak custard accident and Stowers was the lucky finger finder.
The damage:Kohl's Frozen Custard only has locations in North Carolina. The story, while disgusting to most of us, wouldn't have made such a huge media splash had it not occurred right on the heels of the Wendy's chili finger claims.
What makes this story even more bizarre and has kept it in the media spotlight is that Stowers won't return the finger to Brandon Fizer, the 23-year-old employee who lost it to a custard machine. Now it's too late for Fizer to get the digit re-attached but Stowers says he's keeping it as evidence and it's been reported that he's hired an attorney to sue the custard company.
Another employee lost part of his finger on the same custard machine less than a year ago. While it was determined he was negligent and it wasn't the store's fault, the images of cut off fingers are still there for consumers.
Arby's
The story:David Scheiding bit into his Arby's chicken sandwich in Ohio and found a slice of human skin as a special topping. The fast food chain's local manager had sliced his thumb while shredding lettuce. He says he cleaned and sanitized the area but didn't throw away the lettuce.
The damage:The incident happened on June 18, 2004, but didn't make headlines until the man filed a lawsuit on April 1, 2005, after rejecting a settlement. The buzz around this story started at the end of April 2005 and has hit the major networks and news outlets but still hasn't become the phenomenon of fingers in food.
Golden Puffs
The story:In early May 2005, Jordan Willett, 5, opened his box of Golden Puffs in the U.K. and out popped a corn snake, alive and well. Willett thought the snake was a toy at first.
An expert analyzed the snake and thinks it was someone's pet before escaping to the box of cereal. It's believed the two-foot long snake had gotten in the box but not inside the sealed cereal packaging.
The family is considering taking the matter further. The small grocery store where the Golden Puffs were purchased says this is one of those freak events but did check with its suppliers to attempt to find out what happened.
The damage: This is one of those odd events that would probably be a bigger deal if it had happened in the U.S. While it did make national news, it wasn't covered nearly as much.
Malt-O-Meal's Golden Puffs are basically a less expensive version of Post's Golden Crisp. The company recently reported a 33-percent growth in one year, from 15 million to 20 million families purchasing its products. Malt-O-Meal hasn't reported a sales drop and since the product was purchased at a small store in the U.K. and with lower press coverage, the damage shouldn't be significant.
Take a look at some of the gross things people have found or have reported they've found in their food:
McDonald'sA Virginia woman ordered a box of Chicken McNuggets and found a fried chicken head as one of her pieces. While this story has been reported as true, a detention deputy reported he found glass on his cheeseburger at a McDonald's in Florida and that story has been found to be false.
A woman in Georgia repoted she found a condom in her burger and it was later determined to be an employee playing a joke by putting the condom on top of the burger after it had been prepared. A Wisconsin woman says she found a rolled up condom in her Big Mac. A Tennessee woman said she bit into her McNugget and a hypodermic needle lodged in her jaw.
McDonald's has been quick to cooperate with authorities when people report finding objects in their food. Some have been found to be true, some are not and some have been investigated but they simply can't find if an employee did something to the food or if the reports were simply a hoax.
Burger KingA two-year-old began screaming after his family says he found a fried lizard in his french fries. They say they were horrified at the discovery and the little boy immediately got sick to his stomach. Burger King said they needed the lizard for analysis to find out the reptile's source.
This happened in the U.K. back in 2000 and didn't make a huge impact on the media in the U.S. Nor did it make a dent in BK's profits.
Cracker BarrelCBRL Group's Cracker Barrel stores were already having a low-earning month when a woman reported a mouse in her soup at one of the Virginia locations. Carla and Ricky Patterson, a mother and son, said they found the mouse in a bowl of vegetable soup they ordered. However, a mouse autopsy revealed the rodent had been beaten to death and that it wasn't cooked like it would've been had it been in the soup vat.
Police arranged to arrest the Pattersons when they told Cracker Barrel they would turn over their camera phone pictures of the mouse soup for $500,000. Cracker Barrel also cooperated with authorities to find out the truth and the truth turned out to be a lie.
Jack in the BoxOn a different wiggly note, Jack in the Box suffered a huge PR and financial blow when more than 600 people got sick in 1993 after eating undercooked hamburger patties contaminated with E. coli.
Since most of the people who got sick were children and four of them died, Jack in the Box seemed to be on its way out of business fast. Not only did the chain suffer from a huge financial loss nationwide, they ended up in court with multiple multimillion-dollar lawsuits. Some plaintiffs with minor injuries received $12 million. A girl who was in a coma for 42 days received $15.6 million. One lawyer said he had recovered $40 million for his clients. Litigation ended after four years.
An investigation revealed the problem traced back to meat supplier Foodmaker. But Jack in the Box waited two days to pull the meat from its stores and didn't get out there to tell the public what had happened. They recovered somewhat when they instituted a state-of-the-art food handling system in an attempt to prevent the tragedy from happening again.
It took Jack in the Box and its chain owners several years to recoup their losses. The chain has survived and many franchise owners are now reporting high gains in profits.
As for Wendy's, Kohl's Frozen Custard, Arby's and Golden Puffs, just like with any of the companies who've suffered a PR crisis, time is the factor that plays a hearty hand in getting consumers to come back. A free frosty is a nice treat but it won't make the thought of a finger in chili go away, even though the claims were a hoax. The image of a man licking a finger in his custard thinking it was candy is something that may even pop into your own head no matter what company's frozen custard you're eating.
Consumers may skip a particular food or even that particular restaurant for a while but most come back. And if you don't think people will go back to Wendy's for chili after the hoax, just think of the consumers who've returned to Jack in the Box after the E. coli deaths.