I have just come back from holidays and read the first paper for a couple of weeks on Sunday. There was a double page ad in the Sun Herald (and I suspect in every major daily in Australia) that screamed PR crisis management.
It was an unbranded ad titled “For over 100 years mouthwashers have helped improve the oral health of more than a billion people. Safely.”
The mouthwash manufacturers went into spin mode to counteract negative media coverage regarding the risk of oral cancer from using the products. The coverage was the result of a review published in the Australian Dental Journal has linked mouthwash containing alcohol to an increased risk of developing the deadly disease.
The advertisements telling the public “there is no scientific evidence to support an association between the use of mouthwashes that contain alcohol and an increased risk of oral cancer.”
The ad attacked the research as “a small, selective review that does not accurately reflect the full body of evidence on the subject.”
The coverage was on 11 January and the ad was 18 January, so pretty good turn around for managing the crisis. It will be interesting to see if the sale of mouthwashes reduced as a result of this negative publicity.
Sydney Public Relations Agency, CP Communications provides specialist media, traditional and online PR strategies that get amazing results. Contact us today. For more great tips visit our website www.cpcommunications.com.au.
