Taco Bell is getting defensive in response to a class-action lawsuit filed against the company last week.
Several attorneys questioned the quality of the beef used in Taco Bell products and its ability in meeting U.S. Department of Agriculture standards of “real beef.”
The company has since launched a national advertising campaign to refute the claims, but President Greg Creed issued a public defense that left more to be desired in terms of crisis management.
The statement, formatted in an advertising copy, can be viewed here. The company’s attempt at damage control seems to have fallen short, seeing as the content of the message seems hastily prepared, factually incomplete and unnerving to the public.
Crises are delicate situations for PR departments. When the integrity and trust of your company is at stake, every action and word is crucial and deliberate.
There are three primary modes of crisis response:
- Deny: denial, attack accuser, shift the blame
- Diminish: excuse, justification
- Repair: ingratiation, bolstering, corrective action, apology
The response methods transition from heavily defensive to heavily accommodative.
In this case study, Taco Bell has chosen to holistically deny the charges, attack the suit and engage in legal battle.
Considering the immediacy of Taco Bell’s response and its abrasive and terse wording, those actions are translated differently to a concerned, skeptical public.
On a rudimentary level, whether you’re a PR practitioner or not, it’s evident that Taco Bell is swiftly shoving something under the rug. Instead of proliferating loyalty with its audience, it’s only fueling uncertainty.
