Crisis Response Paper Mcdonald's

users online, but called into question the organization’s credibility as a “safe place to eat” and one that listens to customer’s concerns.
When a corporation experiences a threat to corporate image, protecting one’s stakeholders is the first priority. This is achieved by implementing necessary crisis response strategies, and Coombs (2007b) Situational Crisis Communication Theory offers three key approaches corporations in crisis: deny, diminish, and rebuild. As McDonalds Canada, knowingly placed people at risk by voluntarily making the decision to adjust its nut-free policy, it falls within the preventable cluster of crisis response, and thus should have used rebuilding crisis response strategies to restore its image. Rebuild strategies
Benoit’s image restoration theory incorporates the act of apology within his image repair strategies, specifically that art of mortification. Mortification refers to organization’s who have committed a transgression who confess and ask those affected for forgiveness, often taking the form of an apology. While McDonald’s is not the first food conglomerate to experience a health-related crisis, their failure to apologize to the public outcry demonstrates a failure in effective crisis communication. Maple Leaf Foods pioneered the use of mortification practice after their 2008 Listeria epidemic when consumers were found to have ingested contaminated cases of corned beef, leading to the death of twenty people. After news broke of the first death, CEO Michael McCain rather than deny culpability, applied acts of mortification in his timely response producing a podcast accepting responsibility for the crisis and disseminated it across news outlets, and seeking the public’s forgiveness. Appearing sympathetic in his response, the public perceived the corporation as having “no play” beyond offering genuine concern for its consumers which salvaged the brand’s reputation. The case of Maple Leaf Foods, reinforces the power of apology in redeeming one’s public image and one tactic McDonalds would have benefitted from adopting. Whilst McDonalds could have remained firm in its decision to start cooking with nuts, having CEO Betts come forward in the form of a televised press conference and take responsibility for the impact this would have on its affected customers and apologizing for it. An apology would have helped to paint the organization in a positive light, as the public would feel that the brand truly sympathized with their