Situational Crisis Communication Theory and the Use of Apologies in Five High-Profile Food-Poisoning Incidents

Journal of the Indiana Academy of the Social Journal of the Indiana Academy of the Social

Sciences Sciences

Volume 20 Issue 1 Article 5

2017

Situational Crisis Communication Theory and the Use of Situational Crisis Communication Theory and the Use of

Apologies in Five High-Pro9le Food-Poisoning Incidents Apologies in Five High-Pro9le Food-Poisoning Incidents

Emmett Dulaney

Anderson University

Rebecca Gunn

Oral Roberts University

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Recommended Citation Recommended Citation

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Apologies in Five High-Pro9le Food-Poisoning Incidents,"

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: Vol. 20 : Iss. 1 , Article 5.

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Research Articles

Situational Crisis Communication Theory and the Use of Apologies

in Five High-Profile Food-Poisoning Incidents

EMMETT DULANEY

Anderson University

REBECCA GUNN

Oral Roberts University

ABSTRACT

This article examines the role that apologies play in situational crisis

communication theory (SCCT) and focuses on a number of recent food-

poisoning incidents. The article first establishes the importance of trust to

firms with a marketing orientation, and the harm that comes when that

trust is lost. This is followed by an overview of apologies versus pseudo-

apologies and how both factor into the principles of SCCT. Finally,

examples of five high-profile apologies related to food-poisoning incidents

are provided and the way that the principles of SCCT were applied in each

instance, along with the outcome, is explored.

KEY WORDS Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT); Apology; Pseudo-

apology; Public Relations; Crisis Management

THE TRANSITION OF FIRMS TO A MARKET ORIENTATION

Many organizations today employ the philosophy of relationship marketing, which is a

move away from transaction-based marketing and toward recognition of the lifetime

value of the customer. The philosophy that a firm chooses to embrace is based on the

firm’s organizational and personal values (including such factors as the firm’s culture,

goals, motive, mission, personal philosophy, and belief about the customer), and, to be

genuine, it represents more than just a mantra (Day 1999). The marketing philosophy that

the organization chooses drives its marketing strategy, which in turn drives the marketing

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Emmett Dulaney, Professor,

Marketing, Anderson University, 1303 E. 5th Street, Anderson, IN 46012;

[email protected]du; (765) 641-4126.

14 Journal of the Indiana Academy of the Social Sciences Vol. 20 (2017)

tactics the company employs. According to Peter Drucker, “True marketing starts out …

with the customer, his demographics, his realities, his needs, his values” (2001:21), and

the philosophy of the firm then determines what tactics it uses to address these.

Arthur Felton defined the marketing concept as being “a corporate state of mind

that insists on the integration and coordination of all the marketing functions which, in

turn, are melded with all other corporate functions, for the basic purpose of producing

maximum long-range corporate profits” (Kohli and Jaworski 1990:2). Thus, to be

successful, an organization must be backed by a solid foundation—a commitment

throughout the firm to creating, delivering, and communicating customer value to chosen

target markets (Kotler 2003). The commitment should be evidenced by an outside-in

perspective that is apparent throughout the firm’s mission and vision statements, as well

as the company’s culture (referred to by some authors as esprit de corps) and overall

beliefs about the customer.

Accepting the philosophy of the marketing concept, the firm uses this philosophy

as its driver in crafting and executing marketing strategies and tactics. Rather than

focusing on quick one-time revenue-producing transactions, the firm looks more to

capturing customer loyalty and customer (not necessarily market) share. Day maintains

that it is necessary for the firm to be closer to the market than its rivals are and defines

the market-driven firm as requiring “a superior ability to understand, attract and keep

valuable customers” (1999:5). If a firm is market-driven, at least three elements are

required: an externally oriented culture, distinctive capabilities in understanding the

market, and a configuration within the firm that allows it to anticipate and respond to

market conditions (Day 1999). The focus on customers and competition is fundamental:

“Customer-related and competitor-related responsiveness both affect market

performance” (Homburg, Grozdanovic, and Klarmann 2007:21).

One of the primary goals of market orientation is to ensure that the entire

organization understands the importance of customer satisfaction and strives to optimize

it. There is significant empirical evidence that employee work satisfaction has a positive

impact on customer satisfaction, and there is a positive relationship between customer

satisfaction and financial performance (Homburg and Furst 2005). As such, Fornell et al.

(2006:11) point out that “investments based on customer satisfaction produce sizable

excess returns.” Kotler, Rackham, and Krishnaswamy (2006:74) indicate that “the first

step inevitably involves improving communication”: The wording is not increasing

communication but is improving communication and making certain the message is on

target and meaningful to the audience. As the organization embraces the philosophy of

market orientation, the needs of employees and customers should be treated with equal

importance (Papasolomou-Doukakis 2002).

Market-oriented firms differ from non-market-oriented firms in every aspect of

their organization. Philosophy drives strategy, and strategy drives tactics; thus, market-

oriented firms not only have different values but also, through their dissimilar

philosophy, utilize distinct strategies and tactics. Rather than focusing on the transaction

(which can be successful in the short term but can harm the firm in the long term), a

market-oriented firm focuses on the customer and the value that the customer holds for

the firm throughout the term of their relationship. The market-oriented firm wants to keep

Dulaney and Gunn SCCT, Apologies in Five High-Profile Food-Poisoning Incidents 15

the customer and to benefit from the customer’s repeat business. To be truly market

oriented, a firm must focus on the target market, customer needs, integrated marketing, and

profitability. Crucial to the successful realization and implementation of this philosophy is

an ability to acquire and disseminate information, and to use that information in decisions

ranging from product development to promotion, pricing, and distribution. The visible

manifestation of a market orientation should be witnessed by higher employee satisfaction,

price premiums, higher profitability, and an increased likelihood of long-term success (Best

2000; Jaworski and Kohli 1993; Slater and Narver 1994).

THE VALUE OF TRUST

Trust can be described as a key element in establishing relationships with consumers

(Kang and Hustvedt 2014). Trust in a company is considered to be taking a company at

its word—that whatever a company says it will do, it will do—and that the company will

do all it can to maintain its promises (Chaudhuri and Holbrook 2001). With an emphasis

in market orientation on the lifetime value of the customer, it is important that the

customer trust the organization. It is when trusting that they will be treated equitably and

fairly—and with the same level of satisfaction—that customers opt to return repeatedly

and to increase their value to the organization.

If a customer chooses not to return to the organization when in need of a good or

service—if the customer opts to sever the relationship that previously existed—the firm

loses the lifetime value of that customer through churn. Turnover is costly, and studies in

trust indicate that the cost of acquiring a new customer is as much as 500 percent higher

than the cost of keeping an existing customer (Covey 2006). Studies indicate that high-

trust organizations, on average, outperform low-trust organizations in total return to

shareholders by 286 percent (Covey 2006). For example, in the case the E.coli breakout

experienced by Chiopotle, the loss of two or three loyal customers has been estimated to

be the equivalent of the loss of ten other customers (Jargon 2016).

WHEN MISTAKES HAPPEN

When mistakes are made, trust is eroded. Customers who may have never thought twice

about eating at a particular restaurant may choose to go elsewhere. The mistakes can be

intentional (an out-of-control employee, for example), unintentional (preparing the wrong

meal), and even well outside of the control of the organization (a supplier delivered

tainted product), but the customer will associate those mistakes with the organization and

will either reevaluate future transactions or will want assurances that the mistake will not

happen again. Customers will question their agreement of common values and mutual

worth (Battistella 2014).

Although trust can take years to be built, that same trust can be lost in a moment

(Covey 2006), and how the organization responds to a crisis can make all the difference

in whether that trust is diminished. According to Covey, sometimes when you violate

trust with a customer, you lose that customer forever, but other times, the incident, when

handled correctly, actually builds trust.

16 Journal of the Indiana Academy of the Social Sciences Vol. 20 (2017)

OVERVIEW OF SITUATIONAL CRISIS COMMUNICATION THEORY

Situational crisis communication theory (SCCT) attempts to map out “how crisis

response strategies can be used to protect reputational assets” (Coombs 2008:263) and

builds on what was once referred to as image restoration but is now known as image

repair (Benoit and Pang 2008:255). SCCT incorporates attribution theory and is divided

into crisis, response strategies, and recommendations. The crisis can be divided into types

based on level of responsibility, factoring in crisis history, relationship history, and

severity. Ten possible response strategies, grouped into three postures (deny, diminish,

and deal), are available to the manager. The crisis-response recommendations offer

guidelines based on the situation and on the chosen response strategy. Although every

crisis is unique and must be responded to accordingly, the prescriptive guidelines offered

by SCCT can help crisis managers protect reputational assets and can assist managers in

preparing for and responding to a crisis (Coombs 2008:263).

THERE is a fair amount of overlap between SCCT and the theory of crisis

communication and image repair discourse used for “image repair” (Benoit and Pang

2008:255), and both subscribe to the belief that the name and reputation of an

organization are valuable assets that should be protected. One way to protect those assets

is to bestow the organization with emotion, allowing it to express compassion for victims

(Augustine 1995) without accepting responsibility (Cohen 1999). For example,

Chipotle’s announcement of its $50 million marketing campaign, continued expansion,

and aggressive investments in staff and management do little to reflect compassion for

the victims of the E.coli outbreak and could be interpreted by some as the exact opposite

of concern.

APOLOGIES AND PSEUDO-APOLOGIES

Genuine Apologies

Apologies offer the opportunity to express emotion, and the wording is important, as

“injuries are frequently unavoidable, but an offender’s compounding an injury with the

insult of failing to apologize is not” (Cohen 1999:1069). It is, however, important to

never ruin an apology with an excuse (Bovens 2008). The wording of the apology, and

the sincerity expected to accompany it, matter, and it is important to not apologize for the

wrong thing (Weeks 2003). In other words, don’t apologize just to be doing so, but be

purposeful and intentional in assuring that it will never happen again (Koehn 2013) and

pay attention to illocutionary phrasing and wording (Skytt 2015).

For an apology to be genuine, at a minimum, the offender is required to accept

responsibility for the act in question and to offer an expression of regret to the offended

party (Benoit 1995). Some argue that taking responsibility for the wrongdoing is only a

portion of what needs to be done and that the wrongdoer must apologize promptly,

conveying a settled/just/prudent character, creating a supportive/consistent context,

personally delivering the apology, exhibiting empathy, and following through on the

apology (Koehn 2013). The element of atonement—including such elements as

repentance, prayer, charity, and public confession (Koesten and Rowland,2004)—can

Dulaney and Gunn SCCT, Apologies in Five High-Profile Food-Poisoning Incidents 17

further substantiate the sincerity of the apology. The party conveying the message

also matters: For an apology to be effective, a senior leader needs to be the one

expressing remorse, candor, and a commitment to change (Schweitzer, Brooks, and

Galinsky 2015).

According to Lazare (2004), the most accepted view is that there are four

components to an effective apology: the acknowledgment of wrong, a description of how

the wrong occurred, an expression of remorse and commitment to keep it from happening

again, and offers of reparation. Each of the four components can be broken into further

parts. For example, the acknowledgment of wrong can be divided into correctly

identifying both parties (wronged and responsible), acknowledging the offense,

recognizing the impact, and confirming that it was a societal wrong (Lazare 2004). As

such, the expression of sorrow and regret should not only be present in the apology but

also serve as its centerpiece (Taft 2000).

Pseudo-Apologies

A pseudo-apology is not a genuine apology but rather an attempt at image repair. Image

repair is thus a persuasive set of messages responding to an attack or incident that could

reflect negatively on the organization. Among the main strategies are evading

responsibility, reducing offensiveness, taking corrective action, and expressing

mortification. By reducing offensiveness, a person accused of misbehavior may attempt

to reduce the degree of ill feeling experienced by the wronged; the accused does do not

deny committing the offense, or attempt to lessen his or her responsibility but instead

attempts to increase the audience’s positive feelings and reduce its negative feelings

toward the accused or the offense (Benoit 2014).

Pseudo-apologies are usually issued in the hope that attention to the situation will

go away. These non-apologies, or simulated atonement, not only can work in some

circumstances but also can be more effective than genuine apologies at repairing public

image under the right circumstances, when they are worded in such a way as to tell the

offended what they want to hear (Bentley 2015). Two commonly employed methods of

this are disassociation and dispersion (Boyd 2011). Dissociation is an attempt to avoid

responsibility, whereas diminution downplays the offense as not being that serious.

Dispersion suggests that others are (also) guilty of the offense, and displacement involves

apologizing for an offense other than the one in question.

Pseudo-apologies are often nothing more than “rhetorical expressions of redress

(in which blame is denied, hidden, or diffused over multiple parties) … a ritualistic act of

contrition designed to repair damaged relations of trust” (Greenberg and Elliott

2009:201). Pseudo-apologies include wording intended to look like an apology but are

not genuine and usually fail to take responsibility. In some instances, the non-apology

may be worded with the intent of minimizing the incident and of downplaying the

incident to look as if it could simply have been a misunderstanding (Kampf 2009). Any

apology not prompted by a feeling of remorse lacks sincerity (Kimoga 2010). A genuine

apology needs to name the wrong but avoid minimizing it. Explanations given in

conjunction with an apology, for example, usually offer external mitigating

18 Journal of the Indiana Academy of the Social Sciences Vol. 20 (2017)

circumstances, but this is not so much a part of an apology as a part of an excuse (Scher

and Darley 1997).

Striving to Regain Trust

The effectiveness of any apology depends on an understanding of the audience and of

what the audience considers appropriate and effective in the given situation (Meier 2004).

Any corporate apology lacking an expression of sympathy should not be considered a

genuine apology (Lee and Chung 2012). Regret alone is not enough; regret needs to be

accompanied by an explicit statement of responsibility in order to benefit the organization

(Pace, Fediuk, and Botero 2010).

It is important to note that reputations fall in the category of “soft variables” that

are difficult to manage but have great value and need to be protected (Ott and Theunissen

2015). When a wrong needs to be righted, the organization should consider righting the

wrong in such a way as to maximize the organization’s exposure from it (Page 2014). For

example, if a customer complaint is resolved privately (such as by a customer calling a

hotline and dealing one-on-one with a representative), then only the previously unhappy

customer knows that the company apologized and righted the situation. By apologizing

and righting the situation through Twitter, however, the company can gain public

recognition for its actions.

Whether a sincere apology or a pseudo-apology is issued, the goal is the same: to

regain the trust that was lost and to keep customers returning. Some have contended that

corporate social responsibility (CSR) requires trust and reciprocal influence between an

organization and its audience (Brennan, Merkl-Davies, and Beelitz 2013). As such, a

failure to apologize, or lack of response to an incident, can be a detriment to CSR.

Studies have shown that the medium in which the organization communicates its

crisis-response messages can factor in to the stakeholders’ perception of the content.

Although there may not be a perceived difference between the use of video or print in the

expression of sympathy or compensation (Coombs and Holladay 2009), social media can

have “the most positive effect on secondary crisis communication and reactions”

(Schultz, Utz, and Göritz 2011:26). Twitter can, and should, factor strategically into the

channel choices that can be used to target stakeholders (Schultz, Utz, and Göritz 2011).

The speed and ability of an organization in regaining trust are greatly affected by the

feelings that existed about the organization before the crisis (Claeys and Cauberghe 2015).

Although the act of apologizing is important for expressing contrition, it is imperative that

sincerity be genuine, or else the apology serves no lasting purpose (Smith 2013).

ILLUSTRATING SITUATIONAL CRISIS COMMUNICATION THEORY

THROUGH CASE STUDIES

The best way to illustrate the concepts discussed in this article is to examine five high-

profile cases in which SCCT was employed and apologies were issued. Only recent

incidents (occurring within eight years of this writing) involving food poisoning were

examined. The cases are discussed in chronological order.

Dulaney and Gunn SCCT, Apologies in Five High-Profile Food-Poisoning Incidents 19

Maple Leaf Foods

A Toronto-based producer of lunchmeat, Maple Leaf Foods faced an outbreak of listeria

in the middle of August 2008 that led to the suspected deaths of twenty-two and the

illness of myriad others (Charlebois and Horan 2010). On August 25, 2008, CEO Michael

McCain released a video (available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIsN5AkJ1AI)

in which he apologized and offered his deepest sympathies:

My name is Michael McCain. As you may know, listeria

was found in some of our products. Even though listeria is a

bacteria commonly found in many foods and in the

environment, we work diligently to eliminate it. When

listeria was discovered in the product, we launched

immediate recalls to get it off the shelf; then we shut the

plant down. Tragically, our products have been linked to

illnesses and loss of life. To the Canadians who are ill and to

the families that have lost loved ones, I offer my deepest

sympathies. Words cannot begin to express our sadness for

your pain. Maple Leaf Foods has 23,000 people who live in

a culture of food safety. We have an unwavering

commitment to keeping your food safe with standards well

beyond regulatory requirements. But this week our best

efforts failed, and we are deeply sorry. This is the toughest

situation we’ve faced in one hundred years as a company.

We know this is shaking your confidence in us. I commit to

you that our actions are guided by putting your interests first.

The apology did not try to shift blame or minimize the situation. The CEO

stepped forward as the face of the organization and admitted that the crisis could shake

the consumer’s confidence in the company; he apologized for failing and assured people

that everything that could be done would be. In later discussions of the event, he stated,

“Going through the crisis there are two advisers I’ve paid no attention to. The first are the

lawyers, and the second are the accountants. It’s not about money or legal liability; this is

about our being accountable for providing consumers with safe food” (Lamont 2012).

The Canadian Press named McCain its business newsmaker of 2008, and David

Dunne, a professor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management,

remarked, “A lot of what they did was technically perfect. I think they’ve done as much

as could be done, and it’s a real example to other companies that face crises. Most

companies are way too slow to deal with these things and they’re afraid of admitting

responsibility and so on, so this is a real example of how to do it right” (Ewing 2009).

Ruth Davenport of CJNI radio in Halifax added, “The listeria crisis was a headline story

in and of itself, but McCain’s sincerity in trying to reach out to the victims and

consumers elevated it even further” (Ewing 2009).

With more than 200 products recalled, the outbreak was considered one of the

worst ever, and the apology, though only approximately one minute in length, “illustrates

20 Journal of the Indiana Academy of the Social Sciences Vol. 20 (2017)

how communication can generate widespread support even after an error with tragic

consequences has occurred” (Greenberg and Elliott 2009:201).

Fat Duck Restaurant

In January and February 2009, an outbreak of norovirus was blamed for more than 500

illnesses at the Fat Duck restaurant, which is owned by celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal

(Morris 2009), in Bray, Berkshire, England. An investigation published in September of

that year by the Health Protection Agency (HPA) pointed to oysters as the probable cause.

The report also blamed the practices of the restaurant for allowing the illness to continue to

spread over a six-week period (Manos 2009). Blumenthal fired back and blamed the HPA

for a sloppy investigation (Kuhn 2009), and also issued an apology to diners:

Dear Sir/Madam

I am writing to you regarding your visit to my

restaurant, The Fat Duck earlier this year.

I am so sorry that I have not been able to write before. I

have wanted to contact you personally for many months,

ever since the problem first emerged. But I was advised by

the official bodies carrying out the investigation, our

lawyers and insurers that I could not do so until both the

factual and legal situation had been established.

We all thought that the HPA report would come in months

ago, but it was held up by the swine flu outbreak. Now

that the report has finally been released I can at last

apologise personally.

I am so very sorry that you or any of your guests had a bad

experience in any way in my restaurant, The Fat Duck. I

have spent my entire adult life trying to create a dining

experience that would delight and entertain my guests and

my whole team are focused on this one aim. It was deeply

upsetting to all of us that your enjoyment of The Fat Duck

was not as we had intended it to be.

Irrelevant of the outcome of reports or advice it was always

my intention, as I made clear at the outset, to invite anyone

affected by the unfortunate incident earlier this year, back

to the restaurant as my guest. I would be delighted if you

would consider returning to The Fat Duck at a time that is

convenient for you. Please contact my assistant Deborah

Dulaney and Gunn SCCT, Apologies in Five High-Profile Food-Poisoning Incidents 21

who will assist with your reservation. If this is not

appropriate to you personally, please contact us and we will

address each individual situation with our insurers.

Once again please accept my sincerest apologies.

Kindest regards,

Heston Blumenthal

Whereas the CEO of Maple Leaf Foods claimed that he ignored the suggestions

of attorneys and issued his apology when they advised against it, Blumenthal used

attorney suggestions as a reason for not apologizing for more than half a year (“I was

advised by … lawyers and insurers”). He did not come out and apologize directly for the

guests being infected with a virus that causes severe diarrhea and vomiting but instead

was “writing ... regarding [their] visit to my restaurant” and “a bad experience” that they

may have had. He shifted the focus from the patron to the employees: “It was deeply

upsetting to all of us that your enjoyment of The Fat Duck was not as we had intended it

to be.”

In this letter, there is no guarantee that the situation can never happen again, that

standards have been changed, or that any substantial measures have been put in place.

Instead, guests are invited to come back again and to coordinate doing so with an

assistant. The letter offers a free meal as compensation for the shortcomings of the

previous meal, in the same way a fast-food restaurant would give free fries to someone

who found the fries soggy. All told, this makes for a very poor apology, and in 2012,

after eight years in the top ten of the World’s 50 Best list, the Fat Duck fell to number

thirteen. In February of 2015, it closed and a new incarnation of it opened in Melbourne,

Australia (Rayner 2015).

Foster Farms

From May 2012 to April 2013, 134 individuals in 13 states were afflicted by salmonella

poisoning, and the source of the outbreak was traced to Foster Farms chickens

slaughtered at two separate facilities. While efforts were being made to find the cause, a

separate outbreak occurred, from February to October 2013, that infected another 338

individuals with salmonella—this time across twenty states and in Puerto Rico. The

investigation traced the cause back to Foster Farms chicken once more (CDC 2013).

Some stores voluntarily removed the products from their shelves, but the

contamination continued to spread and an estimated 40 percent of those who became ill

required hospitalization (Hylton 2015). It was not until July 2014 that officials from the

USDA were able to make a genetic match to the chicken and to truly identify Foster

Farms as the culprit. By that time, there were 621 confirmed cases of salmonella infection

and it was suspected that as many as 18,000 may have been sickened (Hylton 2015).

In the midst of the crisis, the president of the company, Ron Foster, issued an

apology but defended the company’s lack of action. Rather than recall the chicken

22 Journal of the Indiana Academy of the Social Sciences Vol. 20 (2017)

products, the company had continued to sell them after it was clear that consumers were

becoming ill. His reason was that the company already met or exceeded industry

standards and the food would be safe to eat if cooked to a minimum of 165 degrees

Fahrenheit (Pierson and Hsu 2013). “If we had pulled our product from the market and

put someone else’s in, we’d be lying to the consumer because you’re saying someone

else is better,” Foster said (Pierson and Hsu 2013).

This pseudo-apology fails to meet most standards for an apology. It blames the

consumers for not heating the food to a temperature high enough to kill the bacteria. It

also defends the company’s actions by stating that the company met current standards

(which allow for 7.5 percent salmonella in chicken carcasses); subsequent tests by the

Food Safety and Inspection Service showed a 25 percent rate of the bacteria at Foster

Farms (Sifferlin 2013).

In 2015, the PBS show Frontline ran an episode entitled “The Trouble with

Chicken” that focused on problems with food safety and Foster Farms. Although Foster

Farms disputed the allegations, the company declined to make any representatives

available to discuss the issues publicly (Metz 2015).

Blue Bell Ice Cream

In 2015, an outbreak of listeria was traced to Blue Bell ice cream. Blue Bell issued a

voluntary recall for all its products (not only ice cream but also frozen yogurt, sherbet,

and frozen snacks) that came from suspected facilities. The president and CEO of the

company, Paul Kruse, released an apology (the video of which can be found at

http://cdn.bluebell.com/ceo-video-message):

We’re committed to doing the 100 percent right thing, and

the best way to do that is to take all of our products off the

market until we are confident that they are all safe. At

every step, we have made decisions in the best interest of

our customers based on the evidence we had available at

the time. We have brought in one of the world’s most

respected food-safety microbiologists to inspect our plants

and systems to help us get to the bottom of this issue.

Through further internal testing, we learned today

that Listeria monocytogenes was found in an additional half

gallon of ice cream in our Brenham facility. While we

initially believed this situation was isolated to one machine

in one room, we now know that was wrong. We need to

know more to be completely confident that our products are

safe for our customers.

As Blue Bell moves forward, we are implementing a

procedure called “test and hold” for all products made at all

Dulaney and Gunn SCCT, Apologies in Five High-Profile Food-Poisoning Incidents 23

of our manufacturing facilities. This means that all products

released will be tested first and held for release to the

market only after the tests show they are safe.

In addition to the “test and hold” system, Blue Bell is

implementing additional safety procedures and testing,

including

• expanding our already robust system of daily

cleaning and sanitizing of equipment,

• expanding our system of swabbing and testing our

plant environment by 800 percent to include more

surfaces,

• sending samples daily to a leading microbiology

laboratory for testing,

• providing additional employee training.

At this point, we cannot say with certainty how listeria was

introduced to our facilities. We continue to work with our

team of experts to eliminate this problem.

We urge consumers who have purchased Blue Bell

products to return them to the place of purchase for a full

refund. Consumers with any concerns or questions should

call 979-836-7977 Monday through Friday, eight a.m. to

five p.m. CST or go to www.bluebell.com for the most up-

to-date information.

We are heartbroken about this situation and apologize to all

of our loyal Blue Bell fans and customers. Our entire

history has been about making the very best and highest-

quality ice cream, and we intend to fix this problem. We

want enjoying our ice cream to be a source of joy and

pleasure, never a cause for concern, so we are committed to

getting this right.

The facility where the contamination occurred, in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, was

closed immediately after the problem was found. Subsequent testing showed listeria in a

Texas facility as well, but this was traced to items that had originated in Oklahoma and

then moved to Texas (Newman 2016). That facility was temporarily shut down until the

issue could be resolved.

Blue Bell, one of the largest ice cream makers in the United States, kept its

products from store shelves for four months while it focused on cleaning its plant and

enhancing sanitation and testing procedures. The company took to social media to

24 Journal of the Indiana Academy of the Social Sciences Vol. 20 (2017)

reassure consumers of its safety practices (Newman and Gasparro 2015) and promoted

those practices on its website. Transparency was a key to Blue Bell’s strategy to keep

consumer confidence, and, according to the Wall Street Journal, once the product was

reintroduced, “Blake Rizzo, an IT professional in Houston, drove to a nearby Randalls

grocery store at 6 a.m. Monday to stock up on Blue Bell before it could sell out ... the

store was packed” (Newman and Gasparro 2015).

Chipotle

In October of 2015, Chipotle Mexican Grill was linked to an outbreak of E. coli that

affected more than 50 people across several states (Jargon 2015). The outbreak led to

extensive national coverage in the media, particularly because this epidemic followed two

other problems that had occurred with Chipotle since the summer: California had seen

234 individuals sickened by norovirus in August, and Minnesota had seen 64 people

affected by a salmonella outbreak in August and September (Zuraw 2015). The norovirus

occurrence was attributed to a sick employee violating company policies (Rhodan 2016)

and the salmonella was linked to a batch of tainted tomatoes (Garcia and Goldschmidt

2015), but no direct link to the E. coli contamination was ever found (Hauser 2016).

In early November 2015, Chipotle addressed the public directly about the

incidents and released a press release announcing that it was temporarily closing 43

restaurants in Oregon and Washington. The company was also, according to the release,

taking additional cleaning and sanitizing steps, testing distribution centers, replacing all

food items in the closed stores, batch-testing some ingredients, helping with the Centers

for Disease Control investigation, and retaining two consulting firms “to help the

company assess and improve upon its already high standards for food safety” (Arnold

2015). In December 2015, Steve Ells, chairman and co-CEO, issued an apology:

As a chef, nothing is more important to me than serving my

guests food that is safe, delicious, and wholesome. From

the beginning, all of our food safety programs have met or

exceeded industry standards. But recent incidents, an E.

coli outbreak that sickened 52 people and a norovirus

outbreak that sickened approximately 140 people at a single

Chipotle restaurant in Boston, have shown us that we need

to do better, much better.

The fact that anyone has become ill eating at Chipotle is

completely unacceptable to me and I am deeply sorry. As a

result, we are committed to becoming known as the leader

in food safety, just as we are known for using the very best

ingredients in a fast food setting. I want to share with our

customers specifics about some of the significant steps we

are taking to be sure all of the food we serve is as safe as it

can be.

Dulaney and Gunn SCCT, Apologies in Five High-Profile Food-Poisoning Incidents 25

To achieve our goal of establishing leadership in food

safety, we collaborated with preeminent food safety experts

to design a comprehensive food safety program that

dramatically reduces risk on our farms, throughout our

supply chain, and in our restaurants. The process began

with a farm-to-form risk assessment of every ingredient and

all of our restaurant protocols and procedures.

Throughout our supply chain, we are implementing high-

resolution sampling and testing of many of our ingredients

to prevent contaminants, including E. coli, from getting

into our restaurants. Testing of this kind is unprecedented

in the restaurant industry because of the large number of

samples tested. We are also working without our supplier

partners to further enhance their food safety programs.

We have also designed many improvements within our

restaurants to ensure our food is as safe as possible. This

includes the introduction of additional microbiological kill

steps to eliminate microbial risk. Additionally, we are

rolling out new sanitation procedures in our restaurants and

implementing additional food safety training for all of our

restaurant employees. More information about these

changes is available online at chipotle.com/foodsafety.

In the end, it may not be possible for anyone to completely

eliminate all risk with regard to food (or from any

environment where people congregate), but we are

confident that we can achieve near zero risk. Chipotle is an

incredibly focused company. Our menu has remained

virtually unchanged for the last 22 years and we only have

64 ingredients in our food. Rest assured that we have

looked at each of these ingredients, where they come from,

and how they can be made even safer. I believe our

restaurants are safer today than they have ever been.

The last 22 years have been an incredible journey and we

are not going to shy away from this new challenge. I’d like

to take this opportunity to apologize on behalf of all of us at

Chipotle, and to thank our loyal customers who have stood

by us through this difficult time.

Steve Ells

Founder, Chairman, and Co-CEO

26 Journal of the Indiana Academy of the Social Sciences Vol. 20 (2017)

SCCT was applied when Chipotle apologized for the outbreak, put a face with the

company (Steve Ells), and tried to assure the various publics that Chipotle was doing

everything in its power to control and correct the situation. The apology was carefully

worded and released through a plethora of outlets, including social media, to make sure it

received maximum exposure. Ells made himself available to a number of news

organizations for interviews and follow-ups to further put a human face with the

organization. When it became apparent that no one malefactor could be identified for

causing the E. coli contamination, the company announced through an equally large

number of outlets that it would close its stores for a day to roll out the safety changes and

make that meeting public. Transparency of this magnitude is aligned with the SCCT, and

the company applied it well.

Chipotle has always prided itself as serving “food with integrity”; synonyms for

integrity include honest, truthful, and reliable. What worked in Chipotle’s response to the

crisis was that the company stuck to being honest, truthful, and transparent. It not only

kept communication open through press releases, its website, an FAQ on the outbreak,

social media, and making key executives available for discussion but also asked the

farmers and ranchers who were their vendors to be open and transparent as well. This

kept the dialogue going between the corporation and its publics and allowed them to walk

through the investigation and remedies together (Jargon 2015).

DISCUSSION

Although those in the legal profession have traditionally often discouraged apologies for

fear that apologies be construed as admissions of guilt and used against the issuers in

court proceedings (Patel and Reinsch 2003), others have come to view apologies as

expected rituals. Trust is gained through transparency (Kang and Hustvedt 2014), and

when a problem occurs, apologies allow transparency to occur, enabling consumers to

begin trusting again. Regardless of the view taken, apologies offer opportunities to repair

public images, but to be genuine, apologies must acknowledge responsibility for the

offense, as well as include remorse and a promise not to let the offense happen again

(Hearit 2006). When an apology will help the situation, it is important that the

organization issue one, but it is critical that the apology be issued at the right time. If the

apology is issued too early, the audience is not yet ready for it and it will not be as

effective as if issued when the situation is understood and the stakeholders are receptive

(Ebesu Hubbard et al. 2013).

Whether an apology is accepted or not can be partially attributed to evaluative

expressions and positive tone of voice (Jiang 2013). A bad apology can strain

relationships and lead to bitterness or cause bitterness to remain (Hargie, Stapleton, and

Tourish 2010). In most situations, the words are just the first step—there is a need to

move beyond apologia (Coombs et al. 2010).

Lazare (2004:107) outlines four components to a successful apology: (1)

acknowledgment of the offense; (2) communication of remorse and the related attitudes

of forbearance, sincerity, and honesty; (3) explanations that do not diminish the

seriousness of the offense; and (4) reparations. Table 1 examines each of the five cases

Dulaney and Gunn SCCT, Apologies in Five High-Profile Food-Poisoning Incidents 27

discussed above, and these four components in the companies’ public apologies. Areas of

weakness are in italics.

The companies that issued true apologies rather than pseudo-apologies have done

well at protecting their reputations and restoring trust. Recently, Maple Leaf Foods’ stock

price rose 31 percent over the previous two years, and the company has zero debt and has

reorganized with a lean corporate structure (Atkins 2015). Blue Bell ice cream “is again

being supplied to a large area of the southeast, including most everything south of a line

stretching from New Mexico to the Carolinas” (Flynn 2016).

Foster Farms, in contrast, continues to draw scrutiny and was recently the focus of a

Frontline episode on PBS looking into food-borne dangers. The Fat Duck restaurant has

closed its flagship location and moved to Australia.

Although the outbreaks have been too recent for accurate reflection on the long-term

effects at Chipotle, studies have shown that previously faithful customers were the ones who

changed their eating habits the most and were 50 fifty more likely to stay away than were

occasional customers during the outbreak. Those once-loyal customers have also been “even

harder to lure back in” now that the crisis has passed (Jargon 2016).

Table 1. Apology Components in Food-Poisoning Apologies

Company and

Type of Apology

Acknowledgment

Remorse

Explanation

Reparation

Maple Leaf Foods

Apology

“Listeria was found

in some of our food

products.”

“I offer my

deepest

sympathies.

Words cannot

begin to express

our sadness for

your pain.”

“Our best efforts

failed”

“We launched

immediate recalls to get

it off the shelf; then we

shut the plant down.”

“I commit to you that

our actions are guided

by putting your interests

first.”

Fat Duck

Restaurant

Pseudo-apology

refers to “the

unfortunate

incident” rather than

using the word

“norovirus”

“I am so very

sorry that you or

any of your guests

had a bad

experience in any

way in my

restaurant.”

discusses being

unable to contact

individuals

because of

advisers and

unable to respond

until much later

because of HPA

not being

expedient

“invite anyone affected

… back to the restaurant

as my guest”

Foster Farms

Pseudo-apology

agrees that

salmonella is in the

product but says that

salmonella is also in

products from others

and company is

meeting current

standards (later

found to not be the

case)

continues to sell

product even

though some

grocery chains

voluntarily remove

it from their

shelves

transfers blame to

the customer for

not heating the

product to a high

enough

temperature

none given

Concluded next page

28 Journal of the Indiana Academy of the Social Sciences Vol. 20 (2017)

Table 1. Apology Components in Food-Poisoning Apologies, Concl.

Company and

Type of Apology

Acknowledgment

Remorse

Explanation

Reparation

Blue Bell Ice

Cream

Apology

“We learned today

that … listeria …

was found in our

Brenham facility.”

“We are heartbroken

about this situation

and apologize to all

of our loyal Blue Bell

fans and customers.”

“We cannot say with

certainty how listeria

was introduced to our

facilities. We

continue to work with

our team of experts to

eliminate this

problem.”

“Consumers with any

concerns or questions

should call … or go

to … for the most up-

to-date information.”

“We intend to fix this

problem. We want

enjoying our ice

cream to be a source

of joy and pleasure,

never a cause for

concern, so we are

committed to getting

this right.”

Chipotle

Apology

“an E. coli outbreak

that sickened 52

people and a

norovirus outbreak

that sickened

approximately 140 “

“The fact that anyone

has become ill eating

at Chipotle is

completely

unacceptable to me

and I am deeply

sorry.”

“It may not be

possible for anyone to

completely eliminate

all risk with regard to

food (or from any

environment where

people congregate).”

“We are committed to

becoming known as

the leader in food

safety.”

“I want to share with

our customers

specifics about some

of the significant

steps we are taking to

be sure all of the food

we serve is as safe as

it can be.”

CONCLUSION AND LIMITATIONS

This article contributes to the literature by examining how the principles of SCCT were applied

in each of five high-profile food-poisoning cases. One of the biggest components of SCCT is

the expression of sympathy and connection with the various publics to acknowledge what has

happened (though not necessarily accepting liability) and to assure them that it will not happen

again. This works best with the publics’ belief that the organization is genuinely empathetic and

is going above and beyond to make sure that the situation cannot happen again.

Although all of the companies examined utilized SCCT and apologies to respond to

food-borne crises linked to their products, three of the apologies meet the criteria for genuine

apologies whereas two are more appropriately classified as pseudo-apologies. Those

organizations that issued apologies containing the four components of a successful apology

appear to have fared better than those that did not. The successful apology requires (1)

acknowledgment of the offense; (2) communication of remorse and the related attitudes of

forbearance, sincerity, and honesty; (3) explanations that do not diminish the seriousness of the

offense; and (4) reparations.

There are a number of limitations inherent in this study, the first being that only

five organizations were examined and the outbreaks were of various sizes (one involved

Dulaney and Gunn SCCT, Apologies in Five High-Profile Food-Poisoning Incidents 29

only a single restaurant, whereas another involved recall of 200 products from the

market). Time was also a significant difference: Cases ranged from 2008 to 2015.

Additionally, the scale of severity of each outbreak could factor in: Both Maple Leaf

Foods and Blue Bell battled listeria, whereas the Fat Duck dealt with norovirus and

Foster Farms had salmonella. The outbreak at Chipotle was the most serious of all in

terms of danger of the malady—E. coli—and it came on the heels of problems that the

company faced with both norovirus and salmonella.

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