Wendy's Crisis Management

On March 22, Wendy's has faced a crisis after a 39 years old woman, Anna Ayala, allegedly claimed that she had bitten down on a human fingertip in a spoonful of Wendy's chili at a San Jose location. Within 24 hours, media had the entire story published and broadcasted causing Wendy's to face the issue of recovering its brand image since then. At the beginning, the police was still unable to identify whose the finger was and was uncertainty about whether the finger came from a dead or live person. However, the police was able to initially identify that the object was assumed to be from a woman because of its long and manicured nail. Furthermore, the gruesome was preserved enough to draw a sample of DNA and fingerprints.
The next morning, the news was spread across the nation and become a late-night television joke. Denny Lynch, Wendy's senior vice president for communications, had given an interview for The New York, (April 22, 2005) Times stating that ''It went nonstop the next two or three days even through the weekend. Even when the pope passed away, it still got coverage." The police had begun the investigation to find an evident of missing digits among the workers in the restaurant and furthermore among the food supply company that involved in the food production by using the product coding that allows them to trace where a product comes from, the day it was produced, when it was shipped and when it arrived at the restaurant. Neither of restaurant employees nor the chili ingredients suppliers had suffered a hand injury. The police also used lie detector with Wendy's employees who worked that day and came up with the result that they were truthful regarding to their statement indicating that they didn't have any involvement and knowledge of the introduction of the finger into the chili. Wendy's immediately announced with assurance that no evident to support allegations that it or its supply chain was the source of the finger and wherever the