KFC/Taco Bell Rat Crisis Shows Online Media Monitoring is YUMmy

Mark Harvey of Hass MS&L does an excellent job of explaining how the KFC/Taco Bell Rat Crisis in New York’s Greenwich Village proves the need for effective online media monitoring.  He demonstrates that Yum! Brands, the parent of the two restaurants, could have used monitoring to more effectively respond.

For those unfamiliar with the story, the 2 minute video below tells the story clearly.

Mark incorporates a timeline to show how the story unfolded and grew in an effort to address his central thesis: “When you sell blog and or board/media monitoring, people may ask, ‘How bad can it be, I mean how fast can my reputation go south?'”

He wraps up in a way that I couldn’t have probably said better myself:

If this company had media monitoring and crisis monitoring someone could have called to move media crews away from the front window or covered the front window where dozens of media outlets had set up shop filming and getting customer reaction shots. They weren’t pleasant. Words like “sickened” and “disturbing” and “gross” all played out on national media with the KFC/Taco Bell logo right behind.

Seven hours is all it took…

I recommend reading the post to understand not only the importance of media monitoring, but also crisis communications.  As readers of this blog know, the marriage of the two has been a topic of interest to me lately.